The Coalition Of Civil Society Organizations of Nigeria (COCSON) has commended President Bola Tinubu over the recent flag off of the National Cash Transfer Programme which aims at improving consumption and developing savings skills to reduce poverty.
The National Secretary General of COCSON, Ademola Folabi, gave the commendation in a statement on Monday in Abuja.
He noted that President Bola Tinubu’s initiative of the Renewed Hope Cash Transfer Programme is highly commendable as the Programme has successfully credited about 3 million Nigerians with N25,000 who previously had no bank accounts and weren’t eligible for the programme.
“These three million Nigerians will receive additional N25,000 for two months totalling N75, 000 for each household identified through the National Social Register” he said.
Mr. Folabi said The National Cash Transfer Office under the able leadership of Dr Beta Edu, the Minister for Humanitarian affairs and Poverty Alleviation also made a breakthrough as it was able to document additional poor vulnerable household data from the National Social Register.
“This office is currently in the hinterland of the rural areas, physically identifying this poor individuals, who have largely been unbanked and also has been without any form of telecommunications exposure. They are enrolling them into a beneficiary register with it’s vast network of about 10,000 cash transfer facilitators doing a physical identification and engagements with the vulnerable individuals to ensure that only the poorest of the poor benefit from the National Cash Transfer Programme.
“This in it self is a huge task because it helps identify new Nigerians that had previously been left behind in the planning process of this country, bringing them into the fore front of Nigeria resource allocation initiatives.
“All these are been carried out by the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs under the leadership of Dr. Betta Edu through the National Cash Transfer Office and the National Social Safety Net Coordinating Office under the umbrella of the National Safety Net Programme, which is a collaborative effort at poverty mapping and poverty alleviation between the Nigerian Government through the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Ministry of Finance and the World Bank
“In the bid of the the NCTO to create financial access for these beneficiaries, this financial access will be in the form of a bank account that will be credited directly from the National Cash Transfer Office CBN account. So there will be no intermediary banks which for any reason will hold beneficiaries funds for any amount of time.
“The National Cash Transfer Office is doing this through its states and local government officers in collaboration with relevant financial institution which would ensure that bank accounts are opened for the beneficiaries and ensure that these beneficiaries have access to the funds in those banks accounts once funds have been credited from the National Cash Transfer Office CBN account.
“These designated accounts have a target of 5 million people who are vulnerable and will be paid monthly for 3 months, which will make up the 15 million household as indicated by Mr. President.
“One behalf of the CIVIL SOCIETY ORGANISATIONS we want to express our joy and happiness in the transparency thus far, we also encourage Dr Edu to keep up the good works as we are satisfied with her hardwork and achievements