As part of its determined efforts to touch the lives of Nigerians
\npositively the Buhari administration has started the payment of N5, 000
\nmonthly stipends to the poorest and the most vulnerable in the country
\nthrough the Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) of its Social Investment
\nProgrammes, SIP.<\/p>\n
Under the CCT, one million Nigerians would receive N5000 monthly payments
\nas a form of social safety net for the poorest and most vulnerable as
\nbudgeted for in the 2016 Budget. In the first batch that commenced last
\nweek, nine states would be covered, and many of the beneficiaries have
\nalready reported receiving their first payments by Friday last week,
\nDecember 30, 2016.<\/p>\n
The commencement of the payment under the CCT was announced on Monday in a
\nstatement from the Office of the Vice President, Prof Yemi Osinbajo.<\/p>\n
The statement, signed by the Vice President\u2019s spokesman Laolu Akande, on
\nMonday, said funds for the commencement of the payments in four states
\nwere released last week to the Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System
\n(NIBSS) \u2013 the platform that hosts and validates payments for all
\ngovernment\u2019s social intervention programmes. Funds for another set of five
\nstates to complete the first batch of nine states would follow soon.<\/p>\n
\u201dThough the sequence for the payment of the money would be operationally
\nmanaged by NIBSS, beneficiaries in Borno, Kwara and Bauchi States have
\nstarted receiving the money. The other states in the first batch to
\ncommence the CCT payments are Cross Rivers, Niger, Kogi, Oyo, Ogun & Ekiti
\nStates.<\/p>\n
\u201dThe nine pilot states were chosen because they have an existing Social
\nRegister that successfully identified the most vulnerable and poorest
\nNigerians through a tried and tested community based targeting (CBT)
\nmethod working with the World Bank. However other states have already
\nbegun developing their Social Registers and would be included in
\nsubsequent phases of the CCT implementation.<\/p>\n
\u201dBeneficiaries of the Conditional Cash Transfer of the Federal Government
\nwould be mined from the Social Register, initially developed by 8 States
\nthrough a direct engagement with the World Bank. Those states are featured
\nin the first batch, with the added inclusion of Borno States where a
\nvalidated list of IDPS were compiled in addition to the Social Register
\nwhich is expected to go round the country.<\/p>\n
\u201dWorking with the World Bank, the CBT process has now been adopted for
\ndeveloping the Social Register in the other States around the country, for
\ntransparency, objectivity and credibility in the selection of the poorest
\nand most vulnerable beneficiaries for the programme.<\/p>\n
\u201dThe Federal Government will actually commence community mobilization for
\nthe creation of the Register in more States soon, to expand the scope and
\nreach of the CCT across the country.<\/p>\n
\u201dMeanwhile, Plateau, Jigawa, Adamawa, Anambra, Benue, Enugu, Katsina &
\nTaraba States have so far complied with the stipulated framework provided,
\nand are set for the community based targeting method for the development
\nof their Social Register within their jurisdictions.<\/p>\n
\u201dThese States are to be followed by Delta, Gombe, Kaduna, Kano, Imo and
\nOgun States. Once the community mobilization, identification and selection
\nprocesses are completed, the information garnered from the poorest
\nhouseholds would be entered onto the Social Register in the states and the
\nNational Register at NIBSS, after which the cash transfers would be
\ndisbursed to the beneficiaries.<\/p>\n
\u201dAll the funds approved for the Federal Government\u2019s Social Investment
\nProgrammes, SIP, are domiciled with the Ministry of Budget and National
\nPlanning. In addition, the payment information and processes for all
\nbeneficiaries of the Federal Government\u2019s SIP are hosted at NIBSS, as the
\nConsolidated Beneficiary Register, to ensure and fortify efforts at
\nauthentication and verification, as well as for effective and efficient
\nprogramme management.<\/p>\n
\u201dWith the commencement of the CCT, the Buhari administration is now
\nimplementing four of the Federal Government\u2019s SIP.<\/p>\n
\u201dBesides the CCT, the N-Power Volunteer Corps designed to hire half a
\nmillion unemployed graduates which has now engaged 200,000, and the
\nNational Homegrown School Feeding Programme now running in three states,
\nthe Buhari administration has also kicked-off the Government Enterprise
\nand Empowerment Programme, (GEEP).<\/p>\n
\u201dUnder GEEP, soft loans ranging from N10,000 to 100,000 have been designed
\nfor artisans, traders, market women among others.<\/p>\n
\u201dAlready, thousands of cooperatives, market women associations, farmers
\nand enterprising youths, have been identified and registered for the
\npurpose, on an ongoing basis, and the disbursement of the soft loans
\nthrough the Bank of Industry have started since Nov 25, 2016.
\n\u201dAt the last count, for the first phase, beneficiaries have been drawn
\nfrom the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, Abia, Adamawa, Bauchi, Delta,
\nImo, Kwara, Kano, Katsina, Lagos, Osun, Oyo, Ogun and Kogi States.<\/p>\n
\u201dHowever, disbursements were halted and deferred until after the festive
\nseason. Vetting and approval of beneficiaries are now being continued
\nthrough the month, with the expectation and plan that by month-end
\ndisbursements would have been made to 33,000 beneficiaries.<\/p>\n
\u201dRegarding the 200,000 beneficiaries of the N-Power programme, close to
\n50% of the graduates, have now been physically verified, and started
\nreceiving their monthly stipends of N30,000 last week. A second batch of
\n300,000 unemployed graduates are expected to be selected early this year
\nto make up the half a million target set by the Buhari administration.<\/p>\n
\u201dThe verified graduates are now being deployed to work as assistant
\nteachers in schools, as community health aides and as agricultural
\nextension workers, in more than 20 States of the Federation. These States
\ninclude; Abia, Adamawa, Bauchi, Anambra, Benue, Cross Rivers, Borno,
\nGombe, Edo, Jigawa, Katsina, Plateau, Kogi, Osun, Rivers, Zamfara, Niger,
\nSokoto, Ogun and Taraba.<\/p>\n
\u201dGovernment has also started the implementation of the National Home-grown
\nSchool Feeding programme designed to feed 5.5 million school children for
\n200 school days in the first phase of the programme.<\/p>\n
Although the initial design was to feed pupils in 18 States, funding
\nchallenges had affected an earlier take-off. But the programme has now
\ncommenced in Osun, Kaduna and Anambra States. More states are expected to
\njoin this new year.<\/p>\n
\u201dIn the new year, it is the plan of the Federal Government to scale up the
\nimplementation of the SIP to touch the lives of millions of Nigerians in
\nfulfillment of it\u2019s promises and in furtherance of its Change agenda.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
As part of its determined efforts to touch the lives of Nigerians positively the Buhari administration has started the payment of N5, 000 monthly stipends to the poorest and the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":54867,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-55299","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-exclusive"],"yoast_head":"\n