- Pix above: Muhammadu Buhari
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The National Economic Council, NEC, yesterday unanimously resolved to do away with the national social register used by the Buhari’s administration to implement its conditional cash transfer, saying it lacks credibility.
Consequently, it asked states to generate their own registers for such cash transfers.
This is even as the Federal Government announced that it would distribute 252,000 metric tons of grains to states at subsidised rates to cushion the effect of hardship occasioned by petrol subsidy removal.
However, most states yesterday could not give a definite date as to when they would be able to make the register available.
But the NEC meeting, presided over by Vice President Kashim Shettima at the Council Chamber, Presidential Villa, said the register had integrity issues as the criteria for its compilation was unclear.
Briefing State House correspondents at the end of the meeting, Governor Chukwuma Soludo of Anambra State said contrary to what the previous administration projected, it was not possible to digitally transfer money to the poorest of the poor, the majority of whom were unbankable.
He said it was agreed that states should generate registers that were comprehensive and ensure it was only for vulnerable people.
Professor Soludo, flanked by his Bauchi and Ogun states’ colleagues, Bala Mohammed and Dapo Abiodun, respectively, noted that beneficiaries of the supposed transfered cash could not be identified in the villages.
He said NEC resolved that the states should come up with their own registers, using formal and informal means to develop it, assuring that all beneficiaries at the sub-national level could easily be accessed that way.
“We need to face the problem of the fact that we don’t have a credible register,” he said,
affirming that NEC deliberated on ways to cushion the impact of the recent petroleum subsidy removal.(agency)/SHARE THIS
- Tags: VP Kashim Shettima, Gov Chukwuma Soludo, NEC, Buhari
