The Federal Government of Nigeria (FGN), through the national social safety nets coordinating office (NASCO), is developing rapid response register (RRR) to quickly scale up the enrolment of poor and vulnerable citizens mainly in the Nigerian urban areas, Mrs. Zainab Ahmed, Honourable Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, has said.
According to her, data for the register are being sourced through primary and secondary sources, including the Nigeria Inter-bank Settlement System (NIBSS) and the National Communication Commission (NCC) database on mobile phone users.
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To ensure transparency and to mitigate corruption risks, she said that payments would be made directly to the accounts of the individuals using their bank verification numbers (BVN).
A statement by Yunusa Tanko Abdullahi, her Special Adviser Media & Communications quoted her to have made the comments during her remark at the Open Government Partnership (OGP) 2020 Virtual Leaders Summit Roundtable on ‘Open Recovery: Tracking the trillions of dollars in stimulus and safety net packages’ held recently.
She said that the poor and the vulnerable Nigerians are to potentially benefit from cash transfers to cushion the socio-economic impact of COVID-19 pandemic.
The event was to advance discourse and innovation around open response and open recovery measures in response to the COVID-19 pandemic – an unprecedented global threat which has resulted in far-reaching economic and health consequences.
Speaking on the government response to the COVID-19 pandemic under the leadership of President Muhammadu Buhari, the Honourable Minister said: “Our response to the COVID-19 pandemic under the leadership of Mr. President has been proactive, people-oriented and aimed at averting drastic economic decline and protecting our most vulnerable citizens.
On work done on 2021-2023 Medium-Term Fiscal Framework and the Appropriation Act, she said, “We amended the 2021-2023 Medium-Term Fiscal Framework and the 2020 Appropriation Act, introduced a fiscal stimulus package of N2.3 trillion ( about US$5.9 billion), are scaling up social safety nets (including cash transfers and school feeding programmes), and are currently implementing a multisector economic sustainability plan.”
A key priority has, according to her, been to deploying funds transparently and in a targeted and efficient manner that maximises the impact, in keeping with the government’s commitment under OGP national action plan.
“This is especially important given our limited fiscal space and low domestic revenues,” she added.
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