The Federal Government is reviewing and expanding the National Social Register to accommodate pensioners and ex-servicemen under its Conditional Cash Transfer scheme.
It was gathered that the government was also taking out dead beneficiaries from the register and would disqualify those without National Identification Numbers and Bank Verification Numbers.
It was further revealed that payments would be made directly to the beneficiaries by the Central Bank of Nigeria and not through consultants, as the first batch of bulk payments would begin next week for five million households.
Special Adviser on Media and Publicity to the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation, Rasheed Olanrewaju, 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.”
Confirming the position of the minister’s media aide, the National Communications Manager, National Social Investment Programme Agency, Jamaldeen Kabir, stated that beneficiaries who had exited the poverty line were being removed from the register.
Kabir said, “What he (Olanrewaju) told you is very correct, because the register is being expanded. First of all, it has to be verified so that those who are out of the poverty line will be removed from the old register.
“Those in the register, are they still within the poverty line or have they exited the line? The expansion will also include the wives of fallen heroes and pensioners.”
