The Federal Government has said it will begin the conditional cash transfer programme for 15 million households on October 17, 2023.
This was stated by Betta Edu, the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation, during her appearance on Sunday Politics on Channels Television.
Edu stated that the program would be implemented upon President Bola Tinubu’s assent and the updating of the national social registry.
She said: “With the approval from the President, which we hope to get this week, on the 17th of October, we will be officially launching the conditional cash transfer to 15m households in Nigeria.
“As we speak, we are having a verification exercise. Every state can bear us witness that we have put boots on the ground – persons who are working with the state cash transfer office as well as the governors who are the heads of the steering committee, and then several other persons.
“All of this is to be sure those who are on the national social register truly are Nigerians who fall [spend] within the under $1.95 a day [range], and they deserve to have it.”
The minister stated that the purpose of the verification process is to clean up the register, even if he acknowledged that some people on the social register may have passed away or climbed the economic ladder.
According to Edu, the ministry is collaborating with national stakeholders to compile a reliable roster of recipients.
She added: “So, two things. First, as we speak, we are on the field cleaning up that data and doing a complete verification, and we are juxtaposing both the BVN, NIM and the rest of it to identify these people and be sure we are dealing with authentic persons.
“And then, of course, there is biometrics to it, and you have a capturing of the head of the household as well as a picture of the household so it can be located. Each of these households, they are numbered so people can go there and verify against the register.”