The federal government, under President Bola Tinubu, has announced that it has disbursed N330 billion in cash transfers to support poor and vulnerable Nigerians through the National Social Safety-Net Coordinating Office (NASSCO).
Finance Minister and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Wale Edun, disclosed this on Wednesday in Abuja during a meeting of the Special Presidential Panel on the Social Investment Programme.
Edun stated, “We are pleased to report that the social protection programme, designed as a safety net to help citizens cope with rising prices, is now firmly back on track.”
According to the minister, about 19.7 million households, representing over 70 million Nigerians, are included in the National Social Register. Out of these, 15 million households have received cash transfers funded by the $800 million World Bank facility.
“So far, 8.5 million households have received at least one tranche of N25,000, while some have received two or three payments. The remaining seven million households are expected to be paid before the end of the year,” Edun explained.
The programme is reportedly anchored on a robust, sustainable system, with beneficiaries verified through their National Identity Numbers (NIN), and payments are made digitally via bank accounts or mobile wallets.
Earlier, in August, the Minister of State for Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Reduction, Tanko Sununu, said the government aimed to reach over 2.19 million Nigerians that month through conditional cash transfers. Sununu noted that N419 billion had been disbursed to 5.968 million Nigerians, with 71% of beneficiaries in the North and 29% in the South.
The federal government’s initiative is part of ongoing efforts to provide direct financial support to Nigeria’s most vulnerable citizens amid economic challenges.
