The Federal Government plans to provide N25,000 monthly to 15 million households nationwide to help reduce economic hardship in Nigeria.
Since taking office last year, President Bola Tinubu has removed fuel subsidies and currency controls, causing petrol prices to triple and living costs to rise as the naira weakened against the dollar.
These policies have led to an economic crisis in Nigeria, with high inflation making it difficult for many people to afford food. Some citizens have protested against Tinubu’s leadership style.
During an interview on Channels Television, the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Wale Edun, stated that the Federal Government is working to ease the hardship, especially for the poor and vulnerable.
“But I think the important thing to point out, at this time, is that the focus of Mr President is on keeping his promise, particularly to the poor and the vulnerable. Food prices are elevated, and the purchasing power is limited and that is what Mr President is speaking directly to through the intervention programme of direct payments of N75,000 each over three months,” Edun said.
“That is N25,000 a month to 15 million households and each household is about five people. So, that effectively provides funding for 75 million people.”
The minister reiterated the Federal Government’s intention to distribute grains to alleviate the increasing prices of food items.
“More recently, there was a 42,000 metric tonnes release from the strategic reserves with another 60,000 metric tonnes to come. This is all in a bid to make sure there is food in the marketplace,” the minister said.
The minister stated that the current administration is planning to offer a grant of N50,000 to artisans, traders, women, and youth to help them start small businesses and enhance productivity.
“In this particular case there will be digital verification, just like with the direct payments, direct transfer procedure and in this particular case, it will cover at least 1000 people in all 774 local governments,” he said.
“So that programme will now be another N50 billion. The important thing is to know that to the extent that this is the most direct way to help people at this time, it can be expanded it can be continued until we find a more stable environment in terms of food production, food prices, and affordability through increased spending power of the poor people.”
He explained that the current economic situation is due to eight years of increasing money supply, liquidity in the system, and money not being balanced with increased production.
According to Edun, implementing microeconomic measures would help alleviate the situation by using technology to ensure that payments and revenues are directed to the intended recipients without any intermediaries.
