FG Kicks off Payment of N5000 to Poor Nigerians

The Federal government has kicked off the payment of N5, 000 stipends monthly to the poorest and the most vulnerable persons in the country through the Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) of its Social Investment Programmes.

This was disclosed in a statement by the Senior Special Assistant on Media & Publicity to the Vice President, Laolu Akande.

According to Akande, one million Nigerians would receive N5000 monthly payments as budgeted for in the 2016 budget.

He said, “In the first batch that commenced last week, nine states would be covered, and many of the beneficiaries have already reported receiving their first payments by Friday last week, December 30, 2016.

“Funds for the commencement of the payments in four states were released last week to the Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System (NIBSS) – the platform that hosts and validates payments for all government’s social intervention programmes. Funds for another set of five states to complete the first batch of nine states would follow soon.

“Though the sequence for the payment of the money would be operationally managed by NIBSS, beneficiaries in Borno, Kwara and Bauchi States have started receiving the money. The other states in the first batch to commence the CCT payments are Cross Rivers, Niger, Kogi, Oyo, Ogun & Ekiti States.”