FG’s N5,000 conditional cash transfer list of 8 states ready

There are indications that the list of beneficiaries of the Federal Government’s N5,000 conditional cash transfer for eight states is ready. Feelers from political and World Bank Country office in Nigeria have shown that the list for the conditional transfer has been in the making. The World Bank, it was learned, has used its template that it applies globally to help the federal authorities identify the poor and needy in the eight states while work is said to be in progress in other states of the federation.

The feelers suggest that the team compiling the list in each state goes to two poorest local governments in a state and then identify the two poorest villages or communities in such state. From the poorest community, a list is drawn. One million poor Nigerians will benefit from the programme. The feeler is that the compilation is in collaboration with the World Bank, which had even started compiling a Social Register before the current administration came on board. 

According to those, who have working knowledge of the programme, eight states of the federation have already been covered and that the criteria to determine beneficiaries have been clearly spelt out. They include: school enrolment by the parents of school-age children; immunization of children against child-killer diseases as well as the aged and disabled poor. It was learned that the programme would run throughout the period of the administration’s life. It was gathered that contrary to widely held opinions in some quarters, the N5,000 monthly stipend programme has not been cancelled by the Buhari administration. 

The source clarified that while some people held that the Federal Government was to pay N5,000 monthly to graduates, the graduates’ scheme would be the recruitment of 500,000 volunteer teachers, who would be paid N30,000 monthly. “The graduates’ volunteer programme would run for two years, with the expectation that the volunteers would be able to secure other jobs as the economy throws up new opportunities,” the source said. In addition, he said that the administration’s Micro-credit scheme for small businesses would act as a game-changer in the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) subsector of the economy. Under that scheme, a revolving loans fund would be made available to Nigerian youths who wants to go into small business as well as those already in business, to enable them expand their operations.

Vanguard