The Federal Government has commenced the monthly payment of N5, 000 stipend to the poorest and most vulnerable in the country through the Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) of its Social Investment Programmes (SIP).
According to the Guardian, one million poorest and most vulnerable Nigerians would receive N5, 000 monthly as a form of social safety net.
In the first batch that commenced last week, nine states were covered and many of the beneficiaries had acknowledged receiving their first payment by Friday, December 30, 2016.
Funds for the commencement of the programme 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.
Another set of five states would get funds to complete the first batch.
Though the sequence for the payment of the money would be operationally managed by NIBSS, beneficiaries in Borno, Kwara and Bauchi States have started receiving the money. The other states in the first batch to commence the CCT payments are Cross Rivers, Niger, Kogi, Oyo, Ogun and Ekiti states.
In a statement by the Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity to the Vice President, Laolu Akande, the nine pilot states were chosen because they had a social register that successfully identified the most vulnerable and poorest Nigerians through a tried and tested community-based targeting (CBT) method working with the World Bank.
Source: Guardian
