Betta Edu, Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation, has stated that the Federal Government will implement a conditional cash transfer policy for 15 million households on October 17th, 2023.
She revealed this while featuring on Channels Television’s political and current affairs programme, Sunday Politics, months after the Federal Government ceased paying petroleum subsidy.
“With the approval from the President which we hope to get this week, on the 17th of October, we will be officially launching the conditional cash transfer to 15m households in Nigeria,” minister Betta Edu went on to say.
According to her, the ministry is collaborating with stakeholders across the country to create a verifiable record of beneficiaries.
“As we speak, we are having a verification exercise. Every state can bear us witness that we have put boots on the ground – persons who are working with the state cash transfer office as well as the governors who are the heads of the steering committee and then several other persons,” Betta said.
“All of this is to be sure those who are on the national social register truly are Nigerians who fall [spend] within the under $1.95 a day [range] and they deserve to have it,” the minister went on to say.
While recognising that some people on the register may have died or moved up the economic ladder, Mrs. Betta Edu stated that the purpose of the verification process is to clean up the registry.
“So, two things. “First, as we speak, we are on the field cleaning up that data and doing a complete verification, and we are juxtaposing both the BVN, NIN, and the rest of it to identify these people and ensure we are dealing with authentic persons,” the 36-year-old added.
“And then, of course, there is biometrics to it and you have a capturing of the head of the household as well as a picture of the household so it can be located. On each of these households, they are numbered so people can go there and verify against the register.”
