The Nigerian Government has said it will be reviewing and expanding the National Social Register to accommodate pensioners and ex-servicemen under its Conditional Cash Transfer scheme.
The government also announced that it would be removing beneficiaries who have exited the poverty line.
In the same vein, the government would also taking out dead beneficiaries from the register, even as will disqualify citizens without National Identification Numbers (NIN) and Bank Verification Numbers (BVN).
With the new method, payments would be made directly to the beneficiaries by the Central Bank of Nigeria and not through consultants, with the first batch of bulk payments expected to begin next week for five million households.
The Conditional Cash Transfer scheme, a part of the National Social Investment Programme of the Federal Government, is a project mooted to change the lives of millions of Nigerians living in extreme poverty, upgrade their standards of living and improve the economy.
President Bola Tinubu in commemoration of the 2023 International Day for the Eradication of Poverty on Tuesday in Abuja, launched the disbursement of N25,000 to 15 million households for three months as a social safety net intervention to help mitigate the impact of the recent fuel subsidy removal and help eradicate poverty across the country.
Special Adviser on Media and Publicity to the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation, Rasheed Olanrewaju, said that the cash transfer scheme had been reviewed and expanded.
In his words:
“We are using a verified expanded register that has pensioners and veterans, as well as other vulnerable persons who were not captured.”
The National Communications Manager, National Social Investment Programme Agency, Jamaldeen Kabir, while corroborating the minister’s media aide stated that beneficiaries who had exited the poverty line were being removed from the register.
Kabir said:
“What he (Olanrewaju) told you is very correct, because the register is being expanded. First of all, it has to be verified so that those who are out of the poverty line will be removed from the old register.
“Those in the register, are they still within the poverty line or have they exited the line? The expansion will also include the wives of fallen heroes and pensioners.”
Olanrewaju averred that bulk payments would commence from next week, noting that some of those who had been verified had already started receiving payment alerts.
“The cash transfer (scheme) has been launched and once a household is verified, they get paid. The batches begin this month, next week to be precise; however, verified people have started receiving alerts,” he stated.
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