IN spite of the video footage showing how a woman and her daughter got N20,000 each, the Federal Government on Tuesday says it would be difficult and ‘almost impossible’ for members of the same family to benefit from the Conditional Cash Transfer scheme (CCT).
Sadiya Umar-Farouq disclosed this during a media briefing on COVID-19 updates in Abuja.
The minister said the selection process and subsequent fund disbursement was always stringent.
“This is near impossible because the process involved is a very tedious one, where all critical stakeholders in the community are involved,” Umar-Farouq said while reacting to the claim that two members of a family got the N20,000 supports.
🎥▪️This Is Northern Nigeria: She Received N40,000 Covid-19 Relief Fund From FG – (N20,000 For Her, Another N20,000 For Her Daughter).
▪️She Said."They Asked What's My Daughters Name & I Told Them; They Gave Me Money (N40,000) For My Daughter Too. I'm Happy. #COVIDー19 #Covid_19 pic.twitter.com/UR1DenB7Ew— Somto Okonkwo 𓃵 (@General_Somto) April 21, 2020
“The faith-based organisations, leaders of the community and other stakeholders are the ones who came up with the list of those to benefit from the intervention in that particular community.”
“And if you go through the list, every particular household must be captured in all three or four of the lists being managed by that community.
“So it is almost impossible for the same members of a household to get this intervention,” Umar-Farouq added.
The conditional cash transfer is one of the federal government’s Social Intervention Programme (SIP) designed to support the less privilege in the country.
About 3.6 million persons have so far been considered for the National Social Register from where beneficiaries are selected.
President Muhammadu Buhari also directed N20,000 for four months should be given to poor households to cushion the effects of the lockdown as a result of the Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic.
According to the National Social Safety-Nets Coordinating Office (NASSCO), as of 12th April, about 1.1 million persons have so far benefitted from the scheme from 2015 when the initiative commenced.
However, Umar-Farouq also disclosed that about 279 trucks of grains had been sent to the most affected states.
She said the federal government was already considering disbursements through the Bank Verification Number (BVN) of beneficiaries as part of moves to digitise the scheme.
According to her, mobile phone numbers of the beneficiaries are currently being sourced to improve transparency of the scheme.
She further promised to probe the claim through supports from her ministry.
Olugbenga heads the Investigations Desk at The ICIR. Do you have a scoop? Shoot him an email at [email protected]. Twitter Handle: @OluAdanikin