FG Approves Survival Fund Payment For 155,000 Transporters

A total of 155,920 beneficiaries in the transport sector have been approved to receive the federal government’s survival fund.

The Minister of State for Industry, Trade and Investment, Mariam Katagum, disclosed this on Monday, 23, Naija News reports.

The development was coming not long after the enumeration of the first set of beneficiaries on January 17, 2021. The Senior Special Assistant to the Vice President on Media and Publicity, Laolu Akande, confirmed the development a few hours ago at two separate virtual interactive sessions where Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo interacted with the beneficiaries.

The statement read, “The Minister of State for Industry, Trade and Investment, Mariam Katagum, said since the enumeration of the first set of beneficiaries on January 17, 2021, a total of 155,920 beneficiaries in the transport track have so far been approved for payment while 9,109 pending cases are being processed for payment.

“The minister added that the balance to be enumerated is about 19,689 but noted that only 22 per cent of female beneficiaries in the track were reached because of the peculiar nature of the transportation business.”

Naija News learnt that 43 per cent of the Survival Fund beneficiaries were females. The statement quoted the minister saying that the education sector alone had about 850,000 applications during the one week the survival portal was reopened, compared to about half of the number when the portal was first opened for six weeks.

President Muhammadu Buhari’s led government had released N37billion for Survival Fund in early February, Naija News recalls.

The development was confirmed on Monday, February 8 by the president’s spokesman Laolu Akande, during a meeting presided by Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo at the presidential villa.