The Federal Government is targeting 15 million households, comprising approximately 75 million Nigerians, through its conditional cash transfer initiative, according to Nentawe Yilwatda, the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management, and Social Development.
Each household will receive ₦25,000 monthly, distributed three times a year, as part of President Bola Tinubu’s efforts to alleviate economic hardships faced by vulnerable Nigerians.
“What the President was so specific about is that there are policies he has introduced to ease the challenges faced by people at the lower end of the pyramid,” Yilwatda said during a breakfast show.
He further explained, “The President directed that we should reach 15 million households under the conditional cash transfer scheme to assist those at the bottom level of our social register.
Assuming each household has five members, this means the initiative targets about 75 million Nigerians.”
The minister revealed that five million people have already been reached under the programme.
However, efforts to sanitize the social register have limited the number of beneficiaries with digital identities to 1.4 million.
“The new CBN policy mandates that beneficiaries must have a digital identity for transparency and traceability of funds.
Many of the people we are reaching out to are outside the banking segment,” Yilwatda explained.
He also noted that the programme prioritizes women as household leaders, stating, “We target women because they take care of children and the vulnerable.”
President Tinubu had suspended the scheme in January due to alleged corruption.
However, the Federal Government reinstated the programme in February, with plans to expand its reach to include an additional 12 million households.
The initiative is part of a broader strategy to mitigate the economic challenges faced by Nigeria’s most vulnerable populations.
