The Federal Government has disclosed that it has disbursed more than N600 billion in cash transfers to slightly over nine million households as part of measures to cushion Nigerians against economic hardship.
Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Reduction, Dr Bernard Doro, made this known during an interview on Channels Television’s Politics Today, while defending the government’s interventions amid concerns over the rising cost of living and poverty.
Doro said the cash transfer programme was introduced primarily as a shock-response measure following the removal of fuel subsidy and the economic disruptions triggered by the reform.
According to him, the funds were released in three tranches and targeted millions of vulnerable households across the country.
“Over N600 billion in cash transfers has been done in three tranches, and that has made significant impact. We have reached slightly over nine million households, about 10 million households,” he said.
The minister, however, stopped short of providing a specific figure on the number of beneficiaries lifted out of poverty, saying the government was still undertaking an assessment of the programme’s impact.
He explained that the poverty figures currently being relied upon were based on the 2022 Multidimensional Poverty Index, while a fresh review of the data was being commissioned.
“I have not given you any figure. What I’ve said is this: there have been several interventions. I won’t give you a figure if we have not already reviewed what is going on. We will do this review and once we do that review, we will be able to share the numbers,” Doro said.
He noted that poverty could be assessed using different methodologies, including income-based measurements and multidimensional poverty indicators covering access to healthcare, education and other basic necessities.
Doro also disclosed that the Federal Government was restructuring the country’s social protection system through the newly unveiled One Humanitarian, One Poverty Response System.
He said the initiative was designed to address fragmentation in the implementation of social intervention programmes by bringing federal, state and local government interventions under a more coordinated framework.
“Before now, our delivery has been in such a way that it is fragmented, with different people doing different things to try to help the situation. But with the new reforms, it brings coordination and brings everything together so that the programmes and interventions start talking to one another,” he said.
According to him, the new framework would also strengthen coordination with international development partners and reduce duplication and waste in the implementation of poverty reduction programmes.
“We want to avoid duplication and inefficiencies. We want to make sure that every naira that we invest is actually going directly to the last mile, and also be able to capture and meet the needs of the people who are truly in need of these interventions,” he said.
The minister identified the Unified National Social Registry as a critical component of the new system, explaining that it would be used to identify poor and vulnerable Nigerians and enrol eligible beneficiaries into appropriate government programmes.
He added that beneficiaries would subsequently be tracked through growth and exit registers to determine their progress and establish when they had achieved sustainable economic independence.
Beyond cash transfers, Doro said the ministry had implemented vocational training programmes targeting more than 18,000 Nigerians, who were provided with starter kits, stipends and business management skills to support the establishment of sustainable enterprises.
He said the ministry’s responsibility was to ensure that the benefits of the Federal Government’s macroeconomic reforms translated into tangible improvements in the lives of ordinary Nigerians.
“My job is to translate macroeconomic gains to the micro level. As a Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Reduction, I translate the macroeconomic gains to the micro level,” he said.
Defending the administration’s economic policies, particularly the removal of fuel subsidy and the unification of the foreign exchange market, Doro argued that the measures had helped stabilise the economy and lay the foundation for recovery.
He also claimed that inflation had started declining after reaching a peak of slightly above 34 per cent, putting the latest reading at about 15 per cent.
“We are actually driving down inflation, and that translates to increase in purchasing power,” he said.
On the pace of poverty reduction, the minister acknowledged that reversing widespread economic hardship would not happen overnight, citing China’s decades-long experience in reducing extreme poverty.
“Things take time. China took about 40 years to be able to achieve the scale that they achieved. Nigeria can scale up poverty reduction, and I’m here to establish the system,” he said.
Doro assured that the government would continue to deploy shock-responsive cash transfers and other interventions when necessary to protect vulnerable Nigerians while longer-term poverty reduction measures take effect.
He also said the ministry was prepared to subject the cash transfer programme to a comprehensive and transparent impact assessment to establish whether the intervention had achieved its intended objectives.
“Yes, why not? If we do a holistic impact assessment, why not?” the minister said.
… FG Reveals Amount Disbursed To Nigerian Households To Tackle Hardship Read More on … NaijaOnPoint.
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