See Minimum Bank Balance Nigerians Must Have To Receive COVID-19 Palliatives From FG

Nigerians with more than 5,000 in their bank accounts will not partake in the palliatives being planned by the Federal Government to mitigate the effects of the lockdown extension, President Muhammadu Buhari government has clarified.

Naija News reports that the clarification was made by the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs Disaster Management, Sadiya Farouq, in a chat with reporters at the State House in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital, on Wednesday.

Explaining the modalities for the disbursement of the package, Farouq said her ministry will focus on the urban poor in the implementation of President Muhammadu Buhari’s directive.

The minister said: “You are aware that the President in his broadcast of Monday, 13th April, directed that we expand the beneficiaries of the conditional cash transfer by one million and in this regard, we are going to focus more now 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 the people that we are really going to focus more on as well as people living with disabilities.”

On how her ministry plans to pick beneficiaries, Farouq said: “Well, we have three options; one, we are going to use the national social register that we already have; two, we are also going to focus on the urban poor as I mentioned, by using their verified BVN accounts to get them, that is, people that have an account balance of ₦5, 000 and below.

“We are also using the mobile networks to know people that top up the credit units for their phones with maybe N100 or less. Those are also people that we consider to be poor and vulnerable. So, these are the three options we are exploring and I am sure that by the time we get this data, we will be able to give this intervention.”