The federal government’s proposed cash transfer scheme has been referred to as a swindle by Kaduna State Governor Uba Sani.
This was said by Sani over the weekend on the News Night show of the ARISE NEWS Channel.
The governor said: “My position has always been that, at this critical time, cash transfer should not be something that we should bring up, completely.
I think that cash transfer for me, in my opinion, is a scam. Completely, it is a scam. I can be very certain about that, because who are you transferring the money to?
“Let me give an example; go and check the current statistics. Like I said, as the Chairman, Committee on Banking for four years in Nigeria, I oversee the Central Bank, I oversight all the commercial sectors of our economy for the last four years and I look at the statistics, I will be very firm on this issue and you can go and check it,” he explained.
“About 70 to 75 per cent of the rural population in the North-west are financially excluded completely.
You will have to go and check; these people we are talking about are important people in society. They do not even have a bank account so who are you transferring the money to?
“Let’s try and work very hard to make sure that they are financially included; that is the most important thing and I will like to call on our development partners – the World Bank – to put more money towards bringing more people into the financial services and the vulnerable in particular.
“Let us put more money in to ensure that we open accounts for them, get them involved; if we don’t do that, no matter what we do, however you do it, money will go to the wrong people, that’s the fact.”
In an effort to mitigate the consequences of the elimination of the fuel subsidy, President Bola Tinubu had earlier disclosed his administration’s plan for a monthly N8,000 transfer to 12 million of the poorest households in the nation for six months.
Days after the announcement, however, the federal government declared that, in response to the widespread outcry it caused among Nigerians, it will reconsider the action.
Recall that the National Executive Council (NEC) decided on palliative measures for Nigerians in response to the elimination of the gasoline subsidy and the recent increase in gasoline prices to up to N617 per litre.
Since cash transfers would be made via state social registers, each state would have its own unique requirements. NEC also evaluated integrity testing on state social registers.
A six-month monetary award policy was also implemented by the federal government for public employees.