The World Bank says approximately 99.9% of targeted poor and vulnerable households are yet to receive the N25,000 cash palliative announced by President Bola Tinubu’s administration.
Shortly after the removal of petrol subsidies, President Tinubu had announced a couple of measures to cushion the impact of subsidy removal including the distribution of N25,000 per month for three months to low income households.
President Bola Tinubu introduced the Conditional Cash Transfer Program to assist 15 million Nigerian households on October 17, 2023, with funding support of $800 million from the World Bank.
But data from the World Bank’s Lead Economist for Nigeria, Alex Sienaert, presented last week in Abuja during the Nigeria Development Update, December 2023 edition revealed that “0.1% of the anticipated families have received payment, as only 1.5 million of the targeted 15 million households have been paid for.”
This indicates that even with the extreme poverty in the country, 99.9% of the targets have not received their monthly N25,000 cash transfers.
Sienaert however disclosed that the program is anticipated to reach 5 million households by the end of December, with 1.5 million households having received money thus far.
