The Federal Government has extended direct cash transfers to over 4.3 million citizens, according to Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Mr. Wale Edun.
Speaking on a national television business program, Edun highlighted the government’s commitment to ramping up the initiative to reach one million additional recipients each month.
The cash transfer initiative, aimed at providing financial relief to Nigeria’s poorest and most vulnerable, has seen rapid expansion in recent weeks.
Edun reported that one million individuals have been added to the program in the last few weeks alone, emphasizing the government’s goal to continue this rate of expansion.
“Right now, it’s about 4.3 million. But the last million was in the last few weeks. And when I say we’re ramping at a rate of 1 million per month, that is an ongoing process,” Edun explained.
He projected that with enhanced technological capabilities, the program could potentially scale to assist a million people per week or every two weeks.
Edun outlined a comprehensive plan to address the country’s economic challenges, focusing on the welfare of the people, particularly the vulnerable. Ensuring food availability and affordability is a key component of this strategy.
“There is a concerted effort to ensure that we have homegrown food available. In the short term, apart from what is being distributed from reserves, a window has been opened for importation because the commitment of Mr. President is to drive down those prices now and make food available now,” Edun stated.
The government’s approach involves importing food only after exhausting local supplies to support domestic farmers.
“One of the conditions for this importation will be that everything available locally in the markets or with the millers and so forth has been taken up. We will have auditors that will check that,” he added.
Edun emphasised that these interventions aim to reduce inflation, stabilize the exchange rate, and lower interest rates, thereby fostering a conducive environment for investment and job creation.
“With the kind of food production program we have, inflation will come down as prices come down.
“When inflation comes down, the exchange rate will stabilize. Interest rates will come down, and the economy will have a chance.
“People will have a chance at reasonable rates to invest in various sectors of the economy, increase productivity, grow the economy, and create jobs, which is key to reducing poverty,” Edun elaborated.
Addressing concerns about funding, Edun explained that the cash transfer program is partially funded through a $800 million World Bank program under the International Development Association, which offers loans at a highly favorable rate of one percent over 40 years. He noted that additional funding would come from the federal budget.
To bolster production and tackle inflation, the government has introduced several funding schemes for enterprises of various sizes. Nano enterprises will receive grants of N50,000, while small and medium enterprises can access N1 million in funding at nine percent per annum. Larger medium-sized enterprises are eligible for up to N1 billion in financing at the same interest rate.
Additionally, the government is implementing import waivers and fiscal measures to reduce costs for large companies, including eliminating withholding tax for the manufacturing sector and small businesses.
Edun highlighted the collaboration between fiscal and monetary authorities, noting how the Ministry of Finance and the Debt Management Office have assisted the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) in managing inflation.
“The government, through the Ministry of Finance and the Debt Management Office, took on the challenge of paying higher interest rates on our domestic debt so that we could help the central bank, one, achieve its inflation target, but more importantly, attract foreign flows into the country, which has helped the central bank to pay down virtually all of its outstanding foreign obligations,” he explained.
Edun also clarified that the government has not relied on the Central Bank for financing through “ways and means” but has used market instruments to manage its debts.
“We have not gone to the central bank to say, please lend the government money to pay its debt, to pay its salaries. That’s ways and means. We have not gone.
“In fact, we have used market instruments to pay down what we owed, and that is a very, very germane aspect of having a strong economy,” he asserted.
