FG: 5.4m poor Nigerians now receiving N5,000 monthly

The federal government through the National Social Safety Nets Coordinating Office (NASSCO), says a total of 5,433,394 Nigerians are now on the conditional cash transfer programme.

According to an infographic shared on its Twitter page, the beneficiaries are drawn from 1,080,240 households across 32 states.

This was as of January 31, 2020.

Also, the office said it has captured 9,458,160 individuals on the national social register of poor and vulnerable households.

This, it said, is across 43,258 communities in 35 states.

NASSCO  said the national social register would be used to support outreach, registration and determination of potential eligibility for one or more social programs for poor & vulnerable Nigerians.

In 2017, the federal government had said it would register about five million Nigerians in the national social register for the poor and vulnerable households.

These vulnerable people, President Muhammadu Buhari said, would be enrolled on government intervention programmes that would be tailored for their needs.

The programmes are being financed partly by the $32o million Sanni Abacha loot repatriated by the government of Switzerland.

“The Global Forum on Asset Recovery (GFAR) saw the signing of a memorandum of understanding between Nigeria and the government of Switzerland for the return of an additional $320m of the Sani Abacha loot,” the president said at the time.

“Included in that agreement is the commitment that the funds would be invested in one of Nigeria’s flagship social investment programmes, the conditional h Transfer scheme targeted at the poorest and most vulnerable households in our country.”

The programmes are managed by the ministry of humanitarian affairs and disaster management.