The Buhari-led administration in keeping with its campaign promises during the 2015 presidential election, has commenced the payment of N5, 000 ($16) monthly stipends to unemployed and vulnerable Nigerians.

This scheme which was reported to have started last week is part of the Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) of the administration’s Social Investment Programmes (SIP) for which N500 billion was set aside for, in the 2016 national budget.

Besides the N-Power jobs where graduates and other participants in the programme are paid N3, 000 per month, the CCT also covers one million Nigerians who would receive the N5000 monthly payments as a form of a social safety net.

The programme covers nine states; Borno, Kwara, Bauchi, Cross Rivers, Niger, Kogi, Oyo, Ogun and Ekiti in the first batch.

Already, many beneficiaries from these states have been said to have started receiving their first payment as of January 6, 2017.

“Funds for the commencement of the payments in four states were released last week to the Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System (NIBSS) – the platform that hosts and validates payments for all government’s social intervention programmes. Funds for another set of five states to complete the first batch of nine states would follow soon. The sequence for the payment of the money would be operationally managed by NIBSS,” a statement from the office of the Vice President had said.

The nine pilot states according to the statement were selected due to their existing Social Register which successfully identified the most vulnerable and poorest Nigerians via a tested and tried community based targeting (CBT) method working with the World Bank.

Unemployment and underemployment have been on the rise in the West African country. The Nigerian Bureau of Statistics (NBS) in the second quarter of 2016, puts the unemployment rate at 13.3% from the 12.1% recorded in the first quarter.

However, since the commencement of this programme, several criticisms have been raised by lawmakers who see the development as a way to score cheap political goals.

The Presidency in a statement by the Senior Special Assistant on Media & Publicity to the Vice-President, Laolu Akande, on Sunday confirmed that those who benefited from the monthly N5, 000 stipend from the Federal Government to vulnerable Nigerians, were selected before Buhari came into power.

“There is no way anyone can describe the selection of the beneficiaries of the CCT as partisan as the beneficiaries from eight of the nine pilot States were picked even before this administration came into office. First, the officials at Federal level, working with the State officials, identify the poorest Local Government Areas, using an existing poverty map for the State, then the LG officials identify the poorest communities in the LGAs and we send our teams there,” he said.

Anita Fatunji