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General News of Wednesday, 15 April 2020

Source: www.mynigeria.com

Nigerians on N100 airtime, N5000 in bank account to benefit from palliatives - FG

Sadiya Farouq Sadiya Farouq

The Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Sadiya Umar Farouq has said that those who will benefit from government's cash palliatives are those who recharge N100 airtime and don't have more than N5000 in their bank account.

Farouq who spoke to State House correspondents revealed that the beneficiaries will also go in line with current social register which was expanded from 2.6 million households to 3.6 million households as approved by the President.

The minister also stated that the current social register will focus on the urban poor.

She said: "You are also aware that Mr President in his broadcast yesterday (April 13) has directed that we expand the beneficiaries of the Conditional Cash Transfer by one million.

"In this regard, we are going to focus more on the urban poor. These are people who depend on informal sector to earn their livelihood – They are daily wage earners and these are people we are really going to focus more on as well as people living with disabilities."

The minister also revealed that the criteria for selecting beneficiaries will come from the National Social Register, the Bank Verification Numbers (BVN) and previous records of mobile phone recharge purchase of Nigerians.

She said: "We are also using the mobile network, people that top up their phones with maybe N100, N200. These are the people we consider to be poor and vulnerable."

The development comes amidst cries of displeasure from Nigerians over the methods employed by the Federal Government in distributing palliatives to help cushion the effect of coronavirus.