The National Cash Transfer Office (NCTO) has clarified that only one million vulnerable Nigerian households on the National Social Register (NSR) would get the N20,000 relief fund from the Federal Government to cushion the impact of the lockdown necessitated by the coronavirus pandemic.
KanyiDaily recalls that President Muhammadu Buhari had directed that N20,000 be paid to each vulnerable household through the social investment scheme to cushion the impact of the coronavirus lockdown.
Speaking with The Guardian over the weekend, the National Coordinator, National Social Safety-Nets Coordinating Office (NASSCO), Lonwa Apera said that the NCTO had worked with various state governors to develop the NSR of poor and vulnerable people in 35 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) besides Ogun State.
He stated that the cash transfer that was kicked off by the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs was for existing beneficiaries of the programme, and not every Nigerian.
Apera disclosed that the government was using the register to reach the poor with the cash transfer.
“At the moment, the cash transfer is paying one million poor and vulnerable households. We plan to rapidly increase this number to two million in the next payment round in May,” he said.
According to him, the government is also using the register to provide food rations to those who are not on the cash transfer but have children of school age.
The coordinator said the Buhari government would intensively expand the list to include the urban poor, adding that the number in the document would hit four million households by June 2020.
