President Muhammadu Buhari, this year will start implementing one of the cardinal campaign promises he made to Nigerians with the commencement of N5,000 stipend to one million most vulnerable Nigerians through the Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) of its Social Investment Programmes (SIP), the Presidency has announced.
Laolu Akande, the Senior Special Assistant on Media and publicity to Vice President Yemi Osinbajo disclosed that the implementation of the programme was part of the President Muhammadu Buhari administration’s determined efforts to touch the lives of Nigerians positively.
“Funds for the commencement of the payments in four states were released last week to the Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System (NIBSS) – the platform that hosts and validates payments for all government’s social intervention programmes. Funds for another set of five states to complete the first batch of nine states would follow soon,” he revealed.
The statement said beneficiaries in Borno, Kwara and Bauchi states have started receiving the money under the first batch, which also includes Cross Rivers, Niger, Kogi, Oyo, Ogun and Ekiti states. The nine pilot states were reportedly chosen because they have existing social registers that successfully identified the most vulnerable and poorest Nigerians through a tried and tested community based targeting (CBT) method working with the World Bank.
“Those states are featured in the first batch, with the added inclusion of Borno State where a validated list of IDPS was compiled in addition to the Social Register, which is expected to go round the country. “Working with the World Bank, the CBT process has now been adopted for developing the Social Register in the other states around the country, for transparency, objectivity and credibility in the selection of the poorest and most vulnerable beneficiaries for the programme,” the statement read.
The statement also revealed that the sequence for the payment of the money would be operationally managed by NIBSS.
