The federal government says it will commence disbursement of the recovered $322 million Abacha loot through Conditional Cash Transfers (CCT) to 302,000 poor households in 19 states in July. This was made known by Tukur Rumar of the National Cash Transfer Office (NTCO), at a roundtable on assets recovery organised by the Swiss Embassy on Thursday, in Abuja.
According to Mr Rumar, the benefiting households will receive N5,000 monthly and are derived from the National Social Register (NSR) that the 19 states are already on. The states are: Niger, Kogi, Ekiti, Osun, Oyo, Kwara, Cross River, Bauchi, Gombe, Jigwa, Benue, Taraba, Adamawa, Kano, Katsina, Kaduna, Plateau, Nasarawa, Anambra and Internally Displaced Camps (IDPs) in Borno.
He said the programme was designed to also train beneficiaries on livelihood skills, social skills and other programmes that would change their lives completely.
Mr Rumar, however, said NCTO had been making payments to the 46,000 poor and vulnerable households across the 19 states since December 2016, adding that the number had increased to 290,000.
Iorwa Apera, the National Coordinator, National Social Safety Net Coordinating Office (NASSCO), said 503,055 households were already on the NSR register from the 19 states, adding that by July, there would be a social register for all the states of the federation.
He said of the Abacha loot, about 302,000 poor homes across the 19 states would be mined by the NCTO to begin to receive the Abacha loot.
Mr Apera told the participants that the federal government would begin with those states, because they had signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with NASSCO to put in place certain infrastructure to empower the national register.
“Some of the states delayed, but the other ones were quick enough to set up infrastructure that allowed us to start work there, but all the states are now on board as they have set up their state operating offices and donated office equipment to us.
“As states come on board, we enroll and so they extend to the beneficiary register, and presently we are generating data in all the states now,’’ he said.
