The Federal Government has so far disbursed N9.5 billion as conditional grants to 142,000 poor and vulnerable households in Katsina state.
Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, Sadiya Umar-Farouk, disclosed this while distributing palm-top computers to 108 independent monitors of the social investment programme in Katsina on Sunday.
Umar-Farouk said the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), has given approval for the expansion of the Social Register to accommodate more poor and vulnerable Nigerians in the conditional cash transfer scheme.
The minister, represented by the Director, Information and Communication Technology, Malam Aminu Tukur, said Buhari anticipated lifting 100 million Nigerians out of poverty by 2030.
She tasked the independent monitors to work hand-in-hand with the state office of the National Social Investment Programme (NSIP), to ensure transparency in the implementation of the programme.
Special Adviser to the President on Social Investment Programmes, Mahmud Muhammad, said a total of 4,442 independent monitors have been engaged nationwide.
Muhammad said they would monitor the implementation of the NSIP schemes in the 36 states and the FCT.
He said that each monitor would be paid a monthly stipend of N30,000 having been trained successfully on how to use the tablet application to locate each household and each beneficiary in their areas of assignments.
“With the new arrangement in place, the federal government expects more effective implementation of the programmes which more poor and vulnerable in the country will be captured,” he said.
The state focal person of NSIP, Alhaji AbdulQadir Nasir, urged officials of the programme to collaborate with the independent monitors to provide them with relevant data in the 34 Local Government Areas towards the success of the programme.
