12mn Household to Benefit Directly from Social Investment Programme
By Patience Ikpeme
As part of his promise to ease the suffering of the masses during economic hardship, the President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s government has has resolved that 12 million more households can benefit from its social investment programmes.
These payments will be done directly to the individuals as this will help alleviate poverty as these individuals will know how to prioritize their needs.
The Minister for finance and coordinating minister of the economy, Mr. Wale Edun made this revelation at the Ministry of Finance Retreat In Uyo, Akwa ibom state.
According to Mr Edun, “the unsustainable, wasteful expenditures that benefited a few at the cost of the majority have been done away with, and now the finances of the nation has been restored, cost should be borne by the most able and the vulnerable, the poor and weak will be protected”.
“The President has taken away from the few to give to the many. He has stopped expenditure on the few in favour of expenditure on the many” he stated.
According to Edun, “We know that there’s been about 3 million beneficiaries now, but given the way the rates have gone, there are probably another 12 million people, households that can benefit from that payment”.
The minister stated that the expansion of the direct cash transfer is to make it available to a wider population struggling with the economic situation and to put more money directly in the hands of those who need it most, allowing them to prioritize their needs and alleviate poverty.
Wale Edun stated that technology will be used to ensure smooth and transparent payments, avoiding manual processes and delays. “The only thing delaying that is not waiting for the end of the report. It is something that the intervention is meant to happen immediately.
“We have experts in technology, the commitment was to make sure that we use technology to ensure that we have a seamless payment, a seamless movement between the registered and the direct beneficiaries, without any manual processes in between. So it’s taking time to automate that process immediately, that direct payment will resume”.
Mr Wale Edun argued that “history has shown, evidence has shown that when you pay someone directly, you put money in their hand. It reduces poverty because they decide where the shoe is pinching most.
“So it is a direct benefit, it has a direct effect on poverty. It alleviates, and there’s a commitment to immediately start that process. So that is, as far as these interventions are concerned and the landscape which we as a team are facing, we have a commitment to help to bring down inflation”.
President Bola Tinubu’s ultimate goal Edun emphasized is to grow the economy, “creating jobs and lifting millions and millions of Nigerians out of poverty”.
