Cash transfer, et al as COVID-19 lockdown palliatives

Cash transfer is the most powerful form of social assistance worldwide offered by governments to their populace to ameliorate their condition and make their lives better. Cash transfers are not magic bullets, but they are found to be very effective means of directly assisting the poorest and most vulnerable members of the society. Apart from […]

Cash transfer is the most powerful form of social assistance worldwide offered by governments to their populace to ameliorate their condition and make their lives better.

Cash transfers are not magic bullets, but they are found to be very effective means of directly assisting the poorest and most vulnerable members of the society.

Apart from using cash transfer to empower the vulnerable, it represents an investment in human capital as society’s greatest resource, and it is largely aimed at emancipating the people from the evil hands of poverty.

We are all aware of the coronavirus pandemic, aka COVID-19, that in the last four months has ravaged the world with deaths of thousands of people.

Confronted by the consequences that arose from the partial lockdown of the country by the federal and some state governments, the Nigerian government deemed it fit to adopt the cash transfer approach to reach out to its citizens in order to mitigate the impact of the situation and improve their lives.

Consequently, President Muhammadu Buhari issued directive to the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development to swiftly provide cash transfers to all the vulnerable in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT),  Lagos and Ogun states at the first instance as the worst hit by the lockdown order. The palliative is intended to cover all parts of the country.

This then gave rise to Nigeria’s national social register of the poor and vulnerable households, PVHS. Its status stands at 11,045, 537 individuals as at March 31,  2020, widely spread in 35 states; 453 LGAs; 4,946 wards; 47,698 communities and 2,644, 495 households in the country.

One may ask, how does the conditional cash transfer programme identify the poorest and the most vulnerable who are the target beneficiaries? Coming under a model called community-based targeting, each community identifies what poverty means to them and goes ahead to identify the poorest among them. This programme is in collaboration with the World Bank and the Nigerian government.

More than 5,000 poor members of Kwali LGA in the FCT went home with N20,000 each at the flag off. The money covers a period of four months – from January-April this year at the rate of N5,000 per month per person. Overall more than 1.5 million Nigerians will benefit from the COVID-19 lockdown palliatives. What has made the exercise more credible is the involvement of the British government owned DFID as supervisor.

Other states that have also benefited from the cash transfer include Nasarawa, Katsina and Anambra. This further makes the exercise more credible and transparent.

It is very interesting to note that the Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) scheme is called ‘household uplifting programme’ in other places. And from the testimonies of the beneficiaries we have seen in Kwali and three other states, the scheme has so far achieved the desired aim of sustaining lives of the poor in the rural areas.

In her remarks at the occasion, CCT National Coordinator, Mrs Temitope Sinkayedin, disclosed that it intends to add one million households to the existing 1.2 million already registered under the programme.

In addition to the cash, the government’s efforts to bring succour into the lives of its citizens will also cover food items as another leg of its intervention to ameliorate the stay-at-home order during the period of the partial lockdown.

Towards this end, the president has already approved the release of 70,000 metric tons of assorted food items from the National Strategic Food Reserve stock for distribution to members of the public in all the nooks and crannies of the country.  The reserves are located in Minna, Lafia, Dutsin-Ma, Yola, Gusau and Ilesha.

There is therefore no gainsaying the fact that the cash transfer to the vulnerable is coming at the right time and place for the beneficiaries. Moreover, the government of President Buhari deserves commendation and prayers for it to reach out to more of such people in our midst. It merits a pat on the back for its concern for the plight of its citizens.

Musa Ilallah, Emeka Anyaoku Street, Abuja. ([email protected])