By Seun Ibukun-Oni, Abuja
DAILY COURIER - The Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Reduction, Nentawe Yilwatda, has revealed that certain politicians are attempting to manipulate the social register used to identify poor Nigerians eligible for the government's conditional cash transfer program.
Speaking during an appearance on Channels Television's Sunrise Daily on Monday, Yilwatda highlighted the efforts of some political actors to influence the register for partisan purposes. He stated that the ministry is committed to maintaining integrity, emphasizing that the program is a collaborative initiative involving the World Bank, civil society organizations (CSOs), and the government.
“Some people want us to bend and allow the governors or the states to just generate the list and send,” he said. “It’s a conditional transfer; conditions are attached to qualifying to benefit from the social safety net. Poverty doesn’t know political party, tribe, or grammar. A poor person is a poor person.”
The minister disclosed that the cash transfer program had been temporarily suspended to enhance transparency and accountability. He announced that National Identification Number (NIN) and Bank Verification Number (BVN) are now mandatory for digital transfers.
“It is going to be clearly digital. This time around, we are carrying the CSOs along so that all payments, they can verify, do follow-ups, and ensure transparency in what we are doing,” Yilwatda said.
The social register currently includes 19.8 million Nigerians identified as poor, but only 1.2 million have undergone verification. According to Yilwatda, validation is crucial to ensure that beneficiaries genuinely meet the poverty criteria.
“We need to validate the entire register so that we can get the actual people who are supposed to benefit from it, authenticate their locations, their houses, and capture GPS coordinates of their homes,” he explained.
The minister elaborated that criteria for assessing poverty include access to water, healthcare, education, and economic facilities. The goal is to ensure that only the poorest of the poor benefit from the program, which targets 15 million households with a planned disbursement of N75,000 per household.
The Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs has been marred by controversies since its inception under the administration of former President Muhammadu Buhari. Yilwatda was appointed by President Bola Tinubu in October 2024 to replace Betta Edu, who was suspended and later removed in January 2024.
Edu had been embroiled in allegations of approving N585.2 million to be deposited into a personal account, an accusation she denied, claiming it was a smear campaign. Similarly, her predecessor, Sadiya Farouq, faced a probe over an alleged laundering of N37.1 billion during her tenure.
As Yilwatda works to restore credibility to the ministry, his commitment to transparency and fairness in the conditional cash transfer program is seen as a key test of his leadership. The emphasis on digital systems and validation processes aims to safeguard the program from political and administrative abuse.
