Cash transfers: NEC rejects Buhari's register, charges states to develop new ones

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The National Economic Council (NEC) has decided to dump the national social register used by the President Muhammadu Buhari administration for disbursement of its conditional cash transfer.

The decision of the NEC is hinged on questions over the integrity of the social register.

The NEC made this resolution after its monthly meeting at the State House, Abuja on Thursday, presided over by Vice President Kashim Shettima.

According to the NEC, the register had integrity issues as the criteria for its compilation was unclear.

Governor Charles Soludo of Anambra State, who briefed newsmen after the meeting, said contrary to what the previous administration projected, it is not possible to digitally transfer money to the poorest of the poor majority of whom are unbankable.

Soludo, who was in the company of his Bauchi and Ogun States colleagues, Bala Mohammed and Dapo Abiodun, respectively, noted that beneficiaries of the supposedly transferred cash could not be identified in the villages.

He said: “We need to face the problem of the fact that we don’t have a credible register”.

According to him, NEC resolved that the states should come up with their own registers using formal and informal means to develop it, assuring that all beneficiaries at the subnational level could easily been accessed that way.

Soludo explained that NEC deliberated on ways to cushion the impact of the recent petroleum subsidy removal.

More details later…