Date: 2017-01-03

The Presidency has begun payment of N5,000 monthly stipend to the poorest and the most vulnerable in the country through the Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) of its social investment programmes.

A statement yesterday by the Senior Special Assistant to the Vice President on Media and Publicity, Laolu Akande, said the first batch started last week covering nine states.

The vice president's spokesman said many of the beneficiaries had last Friday received their first payment

Akande said under the CCT, one million Nigerians would receive N5,000 monthly payments as a form of social safety net for the poorest and most vulnerable as budgeted for in the 2016 budget.

He said funds for the commencement of the payments in four states were released last week to the Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System which "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."

Akande stated: "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.

"The nine pilot states were chosen because they have an existing 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. However other states have already begun developing their Social Registers and would be included in subsequent phases of the CCT implementation.

"Beneficiaries of the Conditional Cash Transfer of the Federal Government would be mined from the Social Register, initially developed by 8 States through a direct engagement 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 Federal Government will actually commence community mobilisation for the creation of the Register in more States soon, to expand the scope and reach of the CCT across the country.

"Meanwhile, Plateau, Jigawa, Adamawa, Anambra, Benue, Enugu, Katsina & Taraba States have so far complied with the stipulated framework provided, and are set for the community based targeting method for the development of their Social Register within their jurisdictions.

"These states are to be followed by Delta, Gombe, Kaduna, Kano, Imo and Ogun States. Once the community mobilization, identification and selection processes are completed, the information garnered from the poorest households would be entered onto the Social Register in the states and the National Register at NIBSS, after which the cash transfers would be disbursed to the beneficiaries.

"All the funds approved for the Federal Government's Social Investment Programmes, SIP, are domiciled with the Ministry of Budget and National Planning. In addition, the payment information and processes for all beneficiaries of the Federal Government's SIP are hosted at NIBSS, as the Consolidated Beneficiary Register, to ensure and fortify efforts at authentication and verification, as well as for effective and efficient programme management."