A new report by the World Bank says that up to 4.41 million Nigerian households have benefited from the conditional cash transfer with households from the Southeast being the least beneficiaries at less than four hundred thousand of the total figure.
The World Bank’s Nigeria Development Update reports that households in the Northwest have the highest number of beneficiaries at 1.2 million of the total 4.41 million.
This was followed by the Northcentral with around 900,000 beneficiaries while around 800,000 beneficiaries from the Northwest have been recorded.
In the Southern part of the country, the Southwest had the highest number of beneficiaries at over 700,000 followed by the South-South at 400,000. The Southeast recorded less than 400,000 beneficiaries of the federal government’s cash transfer program which was the least nationwide.
The World Bank noted that while over 4.4 million households have received the first tranche of payment, only 800,000 households have received the second tranche. It cited low coverage of NIN/BVN among the poor and most vulnerable as being responsible for the slow pace of payments.
The report states, “As of October 8, 4.4 million households have received at least one tranche of payment and 0.8 million have received a second tranche. The authenticity of the individuals is being validated through the National Identification Number (NIN) or the Bank Verification Number (BVN) before making payments directly into recipient bank accounts.”
“Low coverage of NIN/BVN among the poor and economically insecure population has adversely impacted the pace of the rollout of the direct benefit transfers.”
In terms of the gender distribution of payments, more females have received the cash transfer from the federal government at 3.12 million than men at 1.27 million beneficiaries.
Furthermore, Kano, Bauchi, Jigawa, Yobe and Plateau were the states with the highest number of beneficiaries of the federal government’s cash transfer program.
What you should know
The removal of fuel subsidy by President Tinubu during his inauguration and subsequent devaluation of the Naira resulted in one of the worst cost of living crises for Nigerians with inflation rising significantly. In order to ameliorate the impact of the policy on the poor and vulnerable, the federal government decided to pay N25,000 to 15 million households for a period of six months.
- In 2023, the Federal Government obtained an $800 million facility from the World Bank to provide cash transfers to vulnerable Nigerians, following the removal of the petrol subsidy by President Tinubu.
- The cash transfer program has come under intense scrutiny by members of the public and the Presidency in recent times following the suspension of the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Dr. Betta Edu and the corruption allegation against the immediate past Head of the Ministry over money laundry to the tune of N37.1 billion.