Coronavirus: FG Reveals New Categories Of People That Will Get Cash Transfers (See Details)

The Federal Government of Nigeria has unveiled the category of Nigerians that will be considered for its conditional cash transfers during the coronavirus pandemic.

According to information gathered, poor and vulnerable residents in urban centres with bank account balance of ₦5,000 or less will be among the beneficiaries of the Conditional Cash Transfer scheme.

This was confirmed by the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs Disaster Management, and Social Development, Sadiya Umar Farouq who also noted that Nigerians who buy N100 call credit will be considered as poor and will be eligible to get cash relief.

These categories of people would be part of the additional one million households approved by President Muhammadu Buhari in his national broadcast Monday night, NAN quoted the Minister as disclosing on Tuesday.

“You are also aware that Mr President in his broadcast directed that we expand the beneficiaries of the Conditional Cash Transfer by one million. In this regard, we are going to focus more on the urban poor.

“These are people who depend on the informal sector to earn their livelihood. They are daily wage earners and these are people we are really going to focus more on as well as people living with disabilities,’’ she stated.

Explaining further, Farouq disclosed that the National Social Register, Bank Verification Numbers (BVN) and previous record of purchase of recharge cards by mobile phone owners will be used as sources of data to identify Nigerians that will get the cash transfer.

“We are also using the mobile network, people that top up their phones with maybe N100, N200. These are the people we consider to be poor and vulnerable,’’ the minister added.

Meanwhile, Naija News reports many Nigerians have been expressing dissatisfaction with the methods so far adopted by the federal government in the distribution of palliatives including food and cash during the lockdown.