The Federal Government has disqualified individuals without the National Identification Number and the Bank Verification Number from the expected beneficiaries of the Conditional Cash Transfer scheme.
According to The PUNCH, the government would also take out dead beneficiaries from the register.
Special Adviser on Media and Publicity to the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation, Rasheed Olanrewaju, while providing details about the initiative on Friday stated that the cash transfer scheme had been reviewed and expanded.
Asked if the Federal Government would use the old register used by the former President Muhammadu Buhari administration to transfer the money, he stated, “We are using a verified expanded register that has pensioners and veterans, as well as other vulnerable persons who were not captured.”
Also commenting on when the cash transfer would begin, Kabir said, “Actually, when the programme was launched at the Presidential Villa three days ago, some beneficiaries were presented with some cheques.
“So, before this month ends, the beneficiaries in the first phase will receive theirs, and this phase caters to five million households. So, we are expecting those five million households to receive money in the months of October, November and December,” Olanrewaju added.
On how many ghost recipients had been discovered, the minister’s aide stated that a lot of measures had been put in place to make the scheme credible, such as the introduction of the NIN and BVN.
“They may not be ghosts, but we have put in place many controls to make the process credible and clean. First, we looked for the NIN and BVN to match with in-person verification and biometrics. The process is from the CBN to the beneficiaries; there are no middlemen,” Olanrewaju stated.
