Breaking: FG To Begin Direct Cash Transfer To Nigerians Over Hardship

It appears there is no light at the end of the tunnel, is the Federal Government would begin direct cash transfer to Nigerians to cushion the negative effect of hardship in the country.

The direct cash transfer targets 15 million Nigerian, according to Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister for the Economy Wale Edun .

The Minister added that President Bola Tinubu has given his approval, adding that 15 million Nigerians are targeted.

 “In the meantime, everything is being done to ease the pain of Nigerians. We have prepared to go to Mr President with an interim recommendation to restart the direct payment to the poorest and most vulnerable.

“The commitment was to make sure we use technology to make a simple payment between the registered and direct beneficiary without any manual processes in between. Immediately, it is done, that direct payment would resume”, Edun informed.

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He spoke today, at Uyo during the 2024 Ministerial Retreat with the theme: ‘Achieving the 8 Presidential Priorities: The Role of the Ministry’.

“There are about three million beneficiaries now but given the way the rate has gone, probably another 12 million households can benefit from that payment. Evidence has shown that when you pay someone directly, it reduces poverty. There is a commitment to immediately start that process.

“Since May 29, the country has been set on a course of macroeconomic stability. The unsustainable, wasteful expenditures that benefitted just a few people at the cost of the majority have been done away.

Providing further details on the direct cash transfer, he said: “So now the finances of the nation have been restored. 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. We are all familiar with how the trajectory has been.

 “It is in those corrective actions left undone, delayed and therefore the transformation to the right course doesn’t come without a cost.

“Mr President’s commitment is that cost should be borne by the most people and the poorest of the poor, the weak would be protected, that is why even at this time of highly elevated food prices, he has stepped in to intervene.

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“He has opened the grain stores, he has released 42,000 metric tonnes of grains and made them available with another 60,000, and this is to intervene to put food, to put grains into the markets in an attempt to drive down the cost of things and make food available.

“That is the key priority in terms of the fiscal size, in terms of the governing size.

“We know the Central Bank with whom we are working hand in hand, is doing all it can to stabilise the rates, and even bring down the foreign exchange rate as part of stabilising the microeconomic picture generally.

Apparently, the direct cash transfer would turn out the best news that Nigerians would have heard in months, following ongoing economic hardship.

According to the president, “It is a tactic change because there is a need to restore the value of the naira, a need to restore the confidence in holding the naira as a stock of value and all the instruments available are being brought to the fore and used. And surely, it is a battle the Central Bank would win, it is a battle the government would win.

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“We have the commitment to help bring down inflation, and on the monetary side, ways and means have been identified.

“We agree that the historical legacy that was inherited has to be dealt with and those are the revenue initiatives that we are focused on to remove that inflation burden on the economy,” he stated.