World Bank Reveals Nigeria Government Inability to Meet The Needs of the supposed 15 million households

The cash transfer program which was introduced by the Tinubu-led administration to cushion the effect of the removal of fuel subsidy was said to distribute N25,000 to 15 million impoverished households and is said to have only attended to only 1.5 million Nigerians out of the total number.

The World Bank revealed that 99.9% out  of the 15 million are yet to receive the N25,000 targeted for poor households. From the earlier plans of this palliative, 15 million households are expected to receive N25,000 for the next three months which was expected to end in December 2023.

According to the report by The Times, Alex Sienaert, the World Bank's Lead Economist for Nigeria last week presented some data in Abuja during the Nigeria Development Update, December 2023 edition. Here, he gave insight on how the cash transfer program is going. 

According to the material presented by the World Bank representative, the Federal Government intended to introduce a palliative program for vulnerable households for the next three months where they are to provide cash transfer of N25,000 to each household out of the 15 million beneficiaries.

The program was introduced by President Bola Tinubu on October 17, 2023 alongside funding support of $800 million from the World Bank for the same initiative. 

This program intends to assist 15 million Nigerian households that make less than N75,000 per month and are considered poor, near-poor, or vulnerable.

From inception, the cash transfer program was expected to assist 15 million people, but with the revelation from Sienaert, at least 5 million households should have received the palliative by the end of December, with only 1.5 million households said to have received the support funds.

Sienaert said, “Merely 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 reveals that even at the state of the hardship in the country, only 0.1% has received the funds while the remaining 99.9% are still battling with the current state of the country. 

Since the removal of fuel subsidy, the country has gone into a dark state because of the worsen hardship witnessed due to this cause. Aside from that, the country's inflation is currently at its peak with the prices of small commodities skyrocketing that even the average man experiences difficulty eating three times daily.

Past Report 

Less than 1% of the poor and vulnerable individuals may not be eligible for the Federal Government’s cash distribution program, according to the World Bank.

Twenty percent of people possessing a valid national ID number from the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) were supposed to be registered in the National Social Registry by June 30, 2022.

But as of December 31, 2022, just 0.10 percent of Nigerians listed as completely impoverished and vulnerable possessed a NIN.

This indicates that roughly only 9,670 of the 9.67 million (9,666,420) project beneficiaries are NIN holders.

Continuation…

The World Bank representative, Sienaert, also commented on the role the National Identification Number (NIN) plays in the cash distribution program.

He said, 

• To increase the use and coverage of the national identity number, beneficiaries will be encouraged to enroll for the NIN during the verification process.

CBN Warning on accounts without BVN and NIN

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) recently announced that by April 2024, all bank accounts without BVN and NIN will be set to “Post no Debit.”

Adding to that, the CBN said that any BVN or NIN linked to and/or connected to accounts or wallets must be electronically revalidated by January 31, 2024.

The CBN encouraged all bank customers to keep to adhere to the apex bank rules and regulations as it has an effort to support national financial stability.