The World Bank says only 1.5 million of the 15 million targeted helpless Nigerian households have received the Federal Government’s N25,000 conditional cash transfer.
World Bank’s Lead Economist for Nigeria, Alex Sienaert, disclosed this during his presentation of the Nigeria Development Update, December 2023 edition, last week in Abuja.
According to the figure, only 0.1 per cent of Nigerians have received the N25,000 after President Bola Ahmed Tinubu announced the programme funded with a World Bank $400 million loan, expected to last from October to December 2023.
“Currently, 1.5 million households have received money, and the programme is expected to reach five million households by the end of December”, Sienaert stated.
The development comes as, in November, the World Bank confirmed that it disbursed $299 million of the $400 million loan for the cash transfer to the Federal Government.
Recall that in President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s Independence Day speech in October, the ‘Cash transfer to 15m poor households’ featured prominently.
The Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation, Betta Edu, whose ministry is responsible for the disbursement, said President Tinubu approved the commencement of the payment in October.
However, the Federal Government said the disbursement has been hampered by a low number of poor and vulnerable people with National Identity Numbers, a criterion needed to receive the cash transfer from the National Social Register of the Conditional Cash Transfer Scheme.
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