By Chinelo Obogo
Amid the high cost of living in the country, the Federal Government has revealed plans to relaunch its direct cash transfer program which it says would reach about 12 million vulnerable Nigerians.
Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister for the Economy, Wale Edun, said this during the retreat organised by the ministry in Uyo, Akwa Ibom state, on Wednesday. He revealed that while the initial project was designed for three million Nigerians, the current economic crisis was a deciding factor in increasing the number of recipients to 12 million.
President Bola Tinubu suspended the management of the National Social Investment Programme Agency (NSIPA) and its programmes in January, which affected the conditional cash transfer programme and three others. But Edun said the President would be well informed about the programme and that technology will be used to ensure transparent payments, avoiding manual processes and delays.
He said: “The presidential panel on the social investment programmes has prepared to go to the President with an internal recommendation to restart the direct payments to the poorest and the most vulnerable. We know that there’s been about three million beneficiaries now, but given the way the rates have gone, there are probably another 12 million people, households that can benefit from that payment. The only thing delaying that is not waiting for the end of the report. It is something that the intervention is meant to happen immediately.
“We have experts in technology, the commitment was to make sure that we use technology to ensure that we have a seamless payment, a seamless movement between the registered and the direct beneficiaries, without any manual processes in between. So it’s taking time to automate that process immediately that direct payment will resume.
“The goal is to put food, to put feed into the mill, into the market, in an attempt to drive down the cost of food and make food available. Right now, that is the key priority in terms of the fiscal side, in terms of the government side. History has shown that when you pay someone directly, you put money in their hand. It reduces poverty because they decide where the shoe is pinching most. So it is a direct benefit and there’s a commitment to immediately start that process.”