The federal government says it has begun the payment of a monthly stipend of N5000 to one million of Nigeria’s poorest and most vulnerable

 

 

The federal government says it has begun the payment of a monthly stipend of N5000 to one million of Nigeria’s poorest and most vulnerable. A statement by Laolu Akande, spokesman to Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo, said the program is being implemented through the Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) component of the government’s Social Investment Programmes (SIP).
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He said that the first batch, which commenced last week, covered nine States, and that many of the beneficiaries reported receiving their first payments by Friday, December 30. Those States are: Borno, Kwara, Bauchi, Cross River, Niger, Kogi, Oyo, Ogun and Ekiti. “Funds for the commencement of the payments in four states were released last week to the Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System (NIBSS) – the platform that hosts and validates payments for all government’s social intervention programs,” Akande said, adding that funds for another set of five states will follow soon. ----------------------------------------------------------
He explained that the nine pilot States were chosen because they have an existing Social Register that successfully identified the most vulnerable and poorest Nigerians through a tried and tested community-based targeting (CBT) method working with the World Bank. Other states, he said, have begun to develop their Social Registers and will be included in subsequent phases of the CCT implementation.