The Federal Government says it has spent $261m out of the $500m loan obtained from the World Bank to fund its social investment programme, which launched between 2015 and 2016.
The National Coordinator of the National Social Safety Net Coordinating Office, Iorwa Apera, who spoke to journalists in Lagos on Friday, stated that the fund covered the National Social Register and the Conditional Cash Transfer under the Federal Government’s poverty alleviation scheme.
Apera said, “The Federal Government took a facility of $500m from the World Bank to build the social register and do the cash transfer. So, the cash transfer of the Federal Government paying N5,000 (per household) is part of that suit of funding. Between 2016 and now, we’ve raised the social register to 4.6 million poor and vulnerable households across the 36 states of the federation and the Federal Capital Territory. In 546 local government areas, 6,004 political wards, and 67,000 communities, of the $500m so far, we have spent about $261m, both in raising the register and paying the cash transfer of N5,000. So far, for the cash transfer, we are paying about one million poor and vulnerable households that are taken directly from the social register.”