The Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation, Betta Edu has announced that the Federal Government will launch the conditional cash transfer policy for 15 million households on October 17, 2023.
Edu made the announcement when she appeared on Channels Television’s Sunday Politics.
She stated that the ministry was actively collaborating with stakeholders nationwide to establish a reliable register of beneficiaries.
The Minister acknowledged the possibility of some individuals on the register having passed away or moved up the economic ladder, and highlighted the ongoing verification exercise aimed at purging the register of such cases.
She said:
“With the approval from the President which we hope to get this week, on the 17th of October, we will be officially launching the conditional cash transfer to 15m households in Nigeria
“As we speak, we are having a verification exercise. Every state can bear us witness that we have put boots on the ground – persons who are working with the state cash transfer office as well as the governors who are the heads of the steering committee and then several other persons.
“All of this is to be sure those who are on the national social register truly are Nigerians who fall [spend] within the under $1.95 a day [range] and they deserve to have it.
“So, two things. First, as we speak, we are on the field cleaning up that data and doing a complete verification and we are juxtaposing both the BVN, NIM and the rest of it to identify these people and be sure we are dealing with authentic persons.
“And then, of course, there is biometrics to it and you have a capturing of the head of the household as well as a picture of the household so it can be located. On each of these households, they are numbered so people can go there and verify against the register.”
