The Federal Government has disbursed more than N600 billion in cash transfers to over 10 million households across the country in the three years since President Bola Tinubu assumed office, Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Reduction, Bernard Doro, has said.
Doro disclosed this on Wednesday during an interview on Politics Today, a Channels Television programme.
He said the programme was designed to support poor and vulnerable households and improve their living conditions, adding that the number of beneficiaries could translate to about 40 million people based on an average household size of four.
“We have done over N600 billion in cash transfers to be able to support vulnerable Nigerians within three years,” Doro said.
The minister said the government had also launched a vocational skills programme that trained more than 18,000 people and provided them with starter kits and stipends.
According to him, the beneficiaries received additional training in business management and accounting to help them establish and manage businesses.
Doro said the government was also supporting farmers through a separate intervention aimed at improving livelihoods and reducing poverty.
Defending the impact of the cash-transfer programme, he said even the N25,000 paid to beneficiaries could make a significant difference to the poorest households.
“N25,000 can look very small to elites, but not to the poorest of the poor,” he said.
The minister said his ministry was focused on translating improvements in the broader economy into better living conditions for ordinary Nigerians.
“My job is to translate macroeconomic gains as the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Reduction. I translate the microeconomic gains to the micro level, and you can see the traction,” he said.
Doro also said the government was monitoring the risk of food insecurity in northern Nigeria following projections that more than 70 million people across nine conflict-affected states could face acute food insecurity.
He, however, stressed that the figures were projections and did not necessarily mean that all those identified would experience food insecurity.
The minister added that the government had recently implemented a presidential intervention on food and nutrition across 10 northern states and would continue to monitor the situation and intervene where necessary.
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