The Covid-19 Palliative is not Conditional Cash Transfer for the Poor
To the general public: we are using this medium to educate Nigerians not to allow politicians to mislead them, the Covid-19 Palliative is not Conditional Cash Transfer for the Poor.
The funding for the ongoing Cash Transfer Programme is from the recovered stolen public fund from Switzerland- $322.5m. The Swiss and Nigerian Government and World Bank entered into agreement which was signed in Washington DC in 2017 in the presence of key Nigerian Civil Society which include HEDA, SERAP, CISLAC , Centre-LSD, Policy Alert and CSJ.
The agreement provided a framework on how the money will be used in Nigeria which is for Conditional Cash Transfer for the POOR under an existing Social Protection Programme managed by the Federal Government with support from the World Bank. The CASH TRANSFER PROGRAMME is funded through the recovered asset and World Bank- (80% from ABACHA LOOT and 20% from WORLD BANK).
The institutional framework put in place for poor Nigerians to access the fund is the National Social Register(NSR) developed by the Federal Government with support from the World Bank. Each beneficiary is paid five thousand naria each month according to the NCTO payment framework. The whole Social Protection Programme was managed by the office of the Vice President until last year when it was moved to the Ministry of Humanitarian, Disaster and Social Development. The monthly CCT payment was stopped in December, 2019. They were to resume payment few weeks ago when the COVID-19 crisis started and the President directed that the poor beneficiaries should be paid four months (January to April, 2020)- which is twenty thousand naira.
Unfortunately, the Federal Government started to assure Nigerians that COVID-19 palliative will be released while the CCT payment was going on and the public could not differentiate Covid-19 and the Conditional Cash Transfer Programme.
As Civil Society we should challenge the Federal Government to disclose the the source of funding of the so-called COVID-19 PALLIATIVES FOR POOR NIGERIANS.
Rev. David Ugolor is ANEEJ Executive Director.