Edo State Government, yesterday, said a total of 102,650 persons in 1,969 communities across the 18 local councils of the state are to benefit from the second phase of Renewed Hope Cash Transfer of the Federal Government.
General Manager, Social Investment Programme (SIP), in the state, Yuwa Aladeselu, disclosed this at a one-day refresher training of local government cash transfer facilitators in Benin City.
Aladeselu said the Renewed Hope Cash Transfer of the Federal Government is under the National Social Safety Nets Project Scale Up (NASSP-SU).
The Edo State SIP boss noted that the state has a social register of over 1.6 million people, adding that Governor Godwin Obaseki is interested in any intervention that will help or provide succour for the poor and vulnerable in Edo.
She added that about 314,000 households were captured in the register, which also include people living with disability, among others.
In her remark, Head of Unit, Edo State Cash Transfer Unit, Flora Bossey, said over 12,108 beneficiaries were enrolled and paid during the first phase of the programme in the state in 2022.
Bossey added that currently a total of 40,647 beneficiaries have been paid N25,000 across the 18 local councils in the state, including those who have bank accounts that were drawn from both the National Social Register (NSR) and Rapid Response Register (RRR).
She said the cash transfer is in line with the vision of the Federal Government to provide 15 million poor and vulnerable Nigerians under the Expanded National Social Safety Nets Programme Scale-Up.
She said that the Expanded National Social Safety Nets Programme Scale-Up was designed to support new beneficiaries for Economic Shock Response Cash Transfer in urban areas.
Bossey also said that the programme includes Extended Regular Cash Transfer in rural areas across the country, as well as transfers to existing cash transfer beneficiaries that are yet to reach 12 cycles of payment to cushion the effect of the removal of fuel subsidy.
On his part, Enrolment Officer/ Beneficiaries Management Officer of the National Cash Transfer Office, Mohammed Adams, said the training was to ensure that the facilitators find the biodata of 101,404 people, who do not have valid bank accounts and enrol them to receive the renewed hope cash transfer.
According to him, the payment delivery mechanism will ensure that payment is delivered to eligible beneficiaries directly into their interoperable transactional accounts/wallets at the right time in a convenient manner.
