February 21, (THEWILL) – The federal government has disclosed plans to resume direct cash transfers to the poorest and most vulnerable Nigerians.
Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister for the Economy, Wale Edun, disclosed this on Wednesday, at the Ministry’s retreat held in Uyo, Akwa-Ibom state.
According to the finance minister, “The presidential panel on the social investment programmes, have prepared to go to Mr President with an internal recommendation to restart the direct payments to the poorest and the most vulnerable. Everything is being done to ease the pain.
“We know that there’s been about 3 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.”
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