Igberetv reports that the Special Adviser to the President on Social Investments, Maryam Uwais has said that 620,947 poor and vulnerable Nigerians are benefiting from the National Cash Transfer initiative.
Mrs Uwais made this public through a statement on Saturday in Abuja. She also said that an earlier report of 6.6 million poor and vulnerable Nigerians benefiting from the scheme and are paid a monthly stipend of N5000 was false.
She explained that the programme is a key component of the National Social Investment Programme of the federal government.
She said, “Although 1,491,296 households, comprising 6,056,872 individuals have been captured on the National Social Register, only 620,947 of them are currently receiving the monthly payments and are being supported by trained community facilitators. I also want to clarify reports making the rounds that the Federal Government made a budgetary provision of N30 billion for 2020, as against the usual 500 billion benchmark for the N-SIP since 2016.”
“Nothing has changed in the budgeting cycle as relates to the Social Investment Programmes (SIP). The SIP budget has always been pegged at N400 billion, while another N100 billion has been domiciled in the Federal Ministry of Finance, as counterpart of the Social Housing Fund.”
She said she expects that there will be no longer shortfalls in budgetary releases.
