VOICE AIR MEDIA News Update

THE federal government has said that 15 million households in Nigeria are to benefit from the government’s poverty intervention under the Conditional Cash Transfer, (CCT), initiative.

Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation, Betta Edu, made this known at an interactive session with journalists in Abuja.

She revealed that as soon as presentation to and approval from President Bola Tinubu is received, the disbursement will commence and 15 million poor households will benefit from the intervention.

“The most important people in the whole picture are those who are beneficiaries we need to begin to put faces to stories; who benefited, who is the person, who are the people, where are they and can you show us evidence of this benefit that you got?

“So your jobs as journalist is to help government to be transparent and to be as close as possible to the people because there is a huge gap between the government and the people; they don’t feel the pulse of the government and we want to close that gap,” she said.

In an earlier meeting with the World Bank on the CCT, the minister said, “The Ministry is preparing to host the Humanitarian Dialogue as well as creation of the Renewed Hope Humanitarian and Poverty Alleviation Trust Fund (HPATF).

“The Trust Fund is expected to come from federal government budgetary provision and allocation, Development partners, the international community, taxes, and private sector contributions, among others.

“The Ministry needs the support of the World Bank to verify and expand the National Social Register (NSR).and offer your technical support in order to work with the Ministry to achieve Mr President’s target.”

She commented on the bank, saying, “The flexibility of the World Bank to accommodate the re-focused agenda of the Ministry to eliminate poverty is a welcome development.

The World Bank Country Director, Mr Shubham Chaudhuri, said the bank will provide the needed support for the new minister to deliver on the new focus of the ministry.

He also said, “The proposed disbursement of $800M for the Social Safety Nets Project will commence soonest.

“We will support the verification and scaling up of the National Social Register, provide technical support in the preparation of the Ministry to attend UNGA and give specialized backing for the establishment of the Trust Fund”.