…Minister Unveils Fresh Strategy To Track Beneficiaries’ Progress Out Of Poverty
…. 2: 7.6m Households To Receive N40,000 One-off Digital Shock-Response Payment
Mujeeb Akindoyin
The Federal Government has disbursed more than N600bn in cash transfers to vulnerable Nigerians in the last three years, the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Reduction, Bernard Doro, has said.
Doro disclosed this on Wednesday during an interview on Channels Television’s Politics Today, saying the intervention had reached slightly more than 10 million households across the country.
“We’ve done over N600bn in cash transfers to be able to support vulnerable Nigerians within three years. We have reached slightly over 10 million households,” the minister said.
His disclosure came shortly after the Federal Government launched the $1bn Renewed Hope Social Protection Programme, designed to move vulnerable Nigerians from short-term relief to sustainable economic empowerment.
The programme, unveiled by the First Lady, Oluremi Tinubu, includes the Household Prosperity and Empowerment Social Protection Project, known as HOPE-SP.
Doro said the new initiative would introduce a more coordinated approach to social protection by putting vulnerable households at the centre of government interventions and tracking their progress out of poverty.
“We have a system where we want to deliberately track poverty,” he said.
Under the HOPE-SP programme, about 7.6 million vulnerable households are targeted nationwide, with eligible beneficiaries expected to receive a one-off digital shock-response transfer of N40,000.
The minister said beneficiaries would be drawn from the National Social Register and validated through their National Identification Numbers.
He added that the government was working with the National Identity Management Commission to facilitate NIN registration and strengthen the verification process.
Reforms will yield results, says minister
Defending the economic policies of the President Bola Tinubu administration, Doro said the removal of petrol subsidy had contributed to greater stability in the economy.
He argued that the success of the reforms should ultimately be measured by their impact on the lives of Nigerians.
The minister also rejected claims that seven million Nigerians had been pushed into poverty under the administration, insisting that the government was working to reduce inflation and rebuild the economy.
Doro drew a comparison with China, saying the Asian country spent decades lifting millions of people out of poverty.
“It took China 40 years to achieve the scale they achieved; Nigeria can scale up poverty reduction,” he said.
He maintained that the reforms introduced by the Tinubu administration had put the country on the path to rebuilding its economy.
The latest intervention comes amid persistent concerns over the rising cost of living and the ability of vulnerable households to cope with economic pressures.
The government says the new social protection framework is intended to go beyond cash handouts by linking vulnerable households with programmes capable of improving their long-term economic independence.
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