The Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Reduction, Prof. Nentawe Yilwatda, has announced that six million Nigerians have benefited from the Federal Government’s Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) programme within the past six months.
Speaking during the graduation ceremony of the Skills-to-Wealth (S2W) Training programme in Jos, Plateau State, on Wednesday, the minister highlighted a significant leap in the pace and reach of the programme under the Renewed Hope administration.
According to Yilwatda, only two million Nigerians had benefitted from the scheme over the last nine years — averaging just 200,000 beneficiaries annually. In contrast, the current administration has achieved a monthly reach of one million individuals since assuming office.
“We are in the process of digitising all households on the social register, creating e-wallets for beneficiaries, and conducting thorough physical verification,” he said. “We have also cleaned the register by removing unverifiable names.”
Yilwatda projected that the programme would cover 15 million households by October 2025, following President Tinubu’s directive to ensure that support reaches targeted families within nine months.
To further ensure accountability, the minister revealed that the World Bank was engaged to independently verify disbursements made to the first four million recipients.
“We wanted to be sure we were reaching the right people,” he explained. “The World Bank visited homes and verified 96 per cent of the beneficiaries. The remaining four per cent were in hard-to-reach areas or had relocated due to insecurity.”
The CCT programme is a key component of President Bola Tinubu’s anti-poverty strategy under the Renewed Hope agenda.
