Observe Social Distancing at Cash Payment Points, Mantra Partners urge FG
- Want State Governors to cooperate with NCTO for fund disbursements.
BENIN CITY, NIGERIA… April 2, 2020…. Civil Society Organisations working under the aegis of Transparency and Accountability in the management of Returned Assets (MANTRA) have called on the payment agents of the Conditional Cash Transfer programme to observe the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) regulations of social distancing at venues of Cash Payments just as they urged state Governors to cooperate with the National Cash Transfer Office to effect payment to poor Nigerians in their various states to enable the poor cope with the challenge of fighting the pandemic.
Executive Director of Africa Network for Environment and Economic Justice (ANEEJ), Rev David Ugolor while disclosing outcome of first day of monitoring of the returned Abacha loot to poor Nigerians by the Federal Government under the Conditional Cash Transfer programme at the ANEEJ COVID 19 Situation Room in Benin City yesterday said the queuing system in Day one did not reflect social distancing and encouraged the NCTO to take this into consideration in subsequent payments.
“We advise their staff and payment operators to comply with this universal guideline for containing the spread of corona virus. The points created for hand washing at payment locations and facilities provided so far are not sufficient. We encourage NCTO to provide more facilities and increase the number of hand washing points/locations for beneficiaries, officials and security agents at payment center.
“The number of communities being paid in Kwali, Abuja at a time were too many, we encourage NCTO and the payment operators to subsequently split such communities so as to reduce the crowd at a particular payment point, ” Ugolor advised.
On the open display of cash by the payment agents, the MANTRA team recommends that a well-thought-out discrete approach should be adopted by the payment agents to mitigate the attendant risks associated with cash exposure in an emergency situation.
A detailed monitoring report is expected at the end of the exercise. The monitoring of cash payment to beneficiaries continues nationwide.
For more information, please contact info@aneej.org.