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Subsidy Removal: 230, 411 households to receive FG’s palliative in Kogi

No fewer than 230,411 households would receive the Federal Government’s N25,000 monthly as a palliative for fuel subsidy removal in Kogi State.

The National Enrollment Manager, National Cash Transfer Office (NCTO), Hajia Sadiya Abdullahi, disclosed this during the enrollment exercise for beneficiaries on Thursday in Lokoja.

She said the programme, tagged ‘Renewed Hope Initiative Intervention’ by the Federal Government was leveraging the National Social Safety Net project structure to deliver its promise to Nigeria to cushion the economic shock of fuel subsidy removal.

According to her, over 15 million households across the country would benefit from the N25,000 monthly disbursement for three months in the first phase.

Abdullahi explained that the beneficiaries were sourced from the verified National Social Safety Net Coordinating Office (NASSCO).

“In Nigeria, a total number of 15 million will be supported through one primary recipient per household.

“In Kogi, we have a total of 230,411 beneficiaries for the first phase of the intervention which is one-third of the total number of beneficiaries to be captured.

“This activity is a transparency and accountability process; you can see we have displayed the list of beneficiaries both banked and unbanked so as to enroll them for payment.

“The system is fully digital, and the unbanked beneficiaries are supported to have bank accounts for financial inclusion,” she said.

Also speaking, Mrs Bridget Okpanachi James, Head of Operation, Kogi State Cash Transfer Unit, said the exercise was meant to display the list of successful beneficiaries and proceed with their data capturing.

“Most of the beneficiaries are unbanked, that is why we are capturing them to get their details so long their names are on the National Social Register (NSR).

“The capturing of their details would in turn qualify them to partake of the N25,000 monthly for three months to cushion the adverse effects of fuel subsidy removal,” she said

Okpanachi said the exercise would capture over 171,000 new beneficiaries in addition to about 74,000 households who were already benefiting from the Cash Transfer of N5,000 monthly disbursement since 2016 in Kogi.

“So in all, over 230,000 households will benefit in the first phase of the Renewed Hope intervention program by the federal government in Kogi State.

“This enrollment exercise is going on simultaneously across the 21 local government areas of Kogi State,” Okpanachi said.

She noted that over 14,000 households would benefit in Lokoja Local Government Area.

She advised the beneficiaries to be patient and calm as there were enough staff on the ground to capture them without wasting time.

Some of the beneficiaries, who spoke appreciated the federal government for alleviating the hardships they experienced due to fuel subsidy removal.

A 75-year-old woman, Hajia Hawal Bala, expressed her gratitude for the gesture, saying, “we appreciate President Tinubu, God will bless him.”

Mr James Friday from Maigari Palace, Lokoja, said: “we are so much happy because we didn’t expect that such a thing would come even though we have been hearing it, but we have seen its reality.

“We have been living in serious hardships but this intervention will serve as a relief to us. We thanked President Tinubu for keeping to his promises.

“By the special grace of God, we will use the money judiciously,” James said.

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