FG commences payment of N5,000 monthly stipend to 1 million poor, vulnerable

The Federal Government said it has commenced the payment of N5,000 monthly stipends to the poorest and the most vulnerable in the country through the Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) of its Social Investment Programmes, SIP.

According to a statement by presidential media aide, office of the Vice President, Laolu Akande, the Programme commenced last week in nine pilot states of the federation, with the payment of beneficiaries in four of the states.

“In the first batch that commenced last week, nine states would be covered, and many of the beneficiaries have already reported receiving their first payments by Friday last week, December 30, 2016.

“Funds for the commencement of the payments in four states were released last week to the Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System (NIBSS) – the platform that hosts and validates payments for all government’s social intervention programmes. Funds for another set of five states to complete the first batch of nine states would follow soon” Akande said.

Under the CCT, one million Nigerians would receive N5000 monthly payments as a form of social safety net for the poorest and most vulnerable as budgeted for in the 2016 Budget.

Akande explained that though the sequence for the payment of the money would be operationally managed by NIBSS, beneficiaries in Borno, Kwara and Bauchi States have started receiving the money. The other states in the first batch to commence the CCT payments are Cross Rivers, Niger, Kogi, Oyo, Ogun & Ekiti States.

He said the nine pilot states were chosen because they have an existing Social Register that successfully identified the most
vulnerable and poorest Nigerians through a tried and tested Community Based Targeting (CBT) method working with the World Bank.

Working with the World Bank, the CBT process has now been adopted for developing the Social Register in the other States around the country, for transparency, objectivity and credibility in the selection of the poorest and most vulnerable beneficiaries for the programme.

He disclosed that all the funds approved for the Federal Government’s Social Investment Programmes, SIP, are domiciled with the Ministry of Budget and National Planning. Payment information and processes for all beneficiaries of the Federal Government’s SIP are also hosted at NIBSS, as the Consolidated Beneficiary Register, to ensure and fortify efforts at authentication and verification, as well as for effective and efficient programme management.

Besides the CCT, the Akande said N-Power Volunteer Corps designed to hire half a million unemployed graduates has now engaged 200,000. The National Homegrown School Feeding Programme he said is now running in three states. The Government Enterprise and Empowerment Programme, (GEEP), is also set to take off with soft loans ranging from N10,000
to 100,000 designed for artisans, traders, market women among others.

“Already, thousands of cooperatives, market women associations, farmers and enterprising youths, have been identified and registered for the purpose, on an ongoing basis, and the disbursement of the soft loans through the Bank of Industry have started since Nov 25, 2016” Akande said.

 

Elizabeth Archibong