• Latest
  • Trending
Concern Mounts Over Corruption, Inefficiency in Nigeria’s $2bn Cash Transfer Programme

Concern Mounts Over Corruption, Inefficiency in Nigeria’s $2bn Cash Transfer Programme

January 24, 2021
Covid-19: Nigeria Records New High  as Confirmed Cases Pass 1000 Mark

Covid Vaccines :We Have to Work with the Country We Have, Not the One We Wish We Had, Nigeria’s Disease Control Boss, Ihekweazu Says

February 26, 2021
Britain Bans New Huawei 5G Kit Installation from September 2021

Reeling from US sanctions, China’s Huawei Plans Foray into Electric Vehicles

February 26, 2021

Niger State Governor Says Federal Government Not Helping in Securing Kagara Schoolboys’ Release

February 26, 2021
Biden to Sign Executive Orders Reversing Trump Actions in First Days in Office, to Rejoin WHO and Paris Accord

US Conducts Air Strikes on ‘Iran-backed Militia’ in Syria

February 26, 2021

Parents Need to Be Involved in Children’s Learning Process to Halt Dwindling Quality of Education, Polly Alakija Says

February 26, 2021
ARISE.TV HEADLINES 26-02-21

ARISE.TV HEADLINES 26-02-21

February 26, 2021

Bandits Abduct Over 300 Schoolgirls in Nigeria’s Northwestern Zamfara State

February 26, 2021
Buhari ‘Disgusted’ By CNN, BBC Coverage of #EndSARS Protests

Buhari Warns Against Ethnic Profiling, Promises to Deal With Insurgents

February 26, 2021
RwandAir to Become First in Africa to Implement IATA Travel Pass

RwandAir to Become First in Africa to Implement IATA Travel Pass

February 26, 2021
ARISE XCHANGE

ARISE XCHANGE

February 25, 2021
Admiral Joe Aikhomu, Chairman Ocean Marine, Dies at 65

Admiral Joe Aikhomu, Chairman Ocean Marine, Dies at 65

February 25, 2021
Nathaniel, 9, Travelled to London to Get a Prosthetic Eye. Now He Needs £850,000 to Live after Leukaemia Diagnosis (WATCH)

Nathaniel, 9, Travelled to London to Get a Prosthetic Eye. Now He Needs £850,000 to Live after Leukaemia Diagnosis (WATCH)

February 25, 2021
ARISE Correspondent Receives Covid Vaccine in UK, Investigates Low Uptake in Black Community

ARISE Correspondent Receives Covid Vaccine in UK, Investigates Low Uptake in Black Community

February 25, 2021

ARISE NEWSDAY

February 25, 2021
Mozambique Receives First Batch of Sinopharm Covid-19 Vaccine Doses

Mozambique Receives First Batch of Sinopharm Covid-19 Vaccine Doses

February 25, 2021
Abuja Plane Crash: Seven Air Force Personnel Buried in Military Cemetary

Abuja Plane Crash: Seven Air Force Personnel Buried in Military Cemetary

February 25, 2021
Nigeria’s Attorney General Malami Won’t Allow New Anti-graft Boss Bawa Succeed, Sagay Says

Nigeria’s Attorney General Malami Won’t Allow New Anti-graft Boss Bawa Succeed, Sagay Says

February 25, 2021
Ivorian Opposition Seeks to Upset Ouattara’s Parliamentary Majority

Ivorian Opposition Seeks to Upset Ouattara’s Parliamentary Majority

February 25, 2021

Global Business Report

February 25, 2021

Morning Show

February 25, 2021
India Releases New Rules to Regulate Social Media, Digital News Platforms

India Releases New Rules to Regulate Social Media, Digital News Platforms

February 25, 2021
Over 1.3 Million Texans Still Grappling With Water Supply Disruptions

Over 1.3 Million Texans Still Grappling With Water Supply Disruptions

February 25, 2021
Report: More Than 6,500 Migrant Workers Have Died During Qatar’s World Cup Prep

Report: More Than 6,500 Migrant Workers Have Died During Qatar’s World Cup Prep

February 25, 2021
Nigerian Journalists are Criminals for Calling Bandits Criminals, Sheikh Gumi Alleges

Nigerian Journalists are Criminals for Calling Bandits Criminals, Sheikh Gumi Alleges (Full Interview)

February 25, 2021
Following Devaluation of Naira, Fitch Upgrades Nigeria’s Outlook to ‘Stable’

Fitch Revises Nigeria’s 2021 GDP Growth Forecast to 1.6% from 2.3%

February 25, 2021
Qantas Aims to Restart Most International Flights in October

Qantas Aims to Restart Most International Flights in October

February 25, 2021

Moderna Set to Test Coronavirus Booster Shot For South African Strain

February 25, 2021
ARISE.TV HEADLINES 25/02/21

ARISE.TV HEADLINES 25/02/21

February 25, 2021
After Public Outcry, Ghana Police Shut LGBT Centre in Accra

After Public Outcry, Ghana Police Shut LGBT Centre in Accra

February 25, 2021
Aston Martin Expects Better 2021 Sales after Deep Losses

Aston Martin Expects Better 2021 Sales after Deep Losses

February 25, 2021
en English
ar Arabiczh-CN Chinese (Simplified)nl Dutchen Englishfr Frenchde Germanit Italianpt Portugueseru Russianes Spanish
No Result
View All Result
Friday, February 26, 2021
Arise News
  • HOME
  • Breaking
  • Global
  • Regional
  • BUSINESS
  • Politics
    • US ELECTION
  • Entertainment
  • Sports
  • TECH
  • Health
  • VIDEOS
  • Covid-19 Updates
Arise News
  • HOME
  • Breaking
  • Global
  • Regional
  • BUSINESS
  • Politics
    • US ELECTION
  • Entertainment
  • Sports
  • TECH
  • Health
  • VIDEOS
  • Covid-19 Updates
No Result
View All Result
Arise News
No Result
View All Result
Home Latest

Concern Mounts Over Corruption, Inefficiency in Nigeria’s $2bn Cash Transfer Programme

January 24, 2021
Reading Time: 8min
0 0
0
Concern Mounts Over Corruption, Inefficiency in Nigeria’s $2bn Cash Transfer Programme
Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

As Nigeria’s federal government plans to commence fresh disbursement of money to citizens, in short-term palliative measures to alleviate poverty, some operators in the government’s National Cash Transfer Programme (NCTP) have alleged a high-level of inefficiency, corruption, and nepotism in the system as run by the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, Sadiya Farouq.

According competent sources, the infractions have been the bane of the scheme, which has prevented it from realising its objective.

The government plans to disburse N5, 000 (about $13) each to about 24.3 million poor Nigerians over a period of six month in the new exercise. 

The minister disclosed the new payment during the week. She said it was meant as a cushion for those further impoverished by the Covid-19 pandemic.

But a source involved in the scheme told THISDAY that with the absence of accurate data, corrupt government officials had been defrauding the system in the name of poverty alleviation.

The source stressed that the fund disbursement for the Rural Women Programme and the Rapid Response Register were outside the budget and without appropriation, insisting that there is no verifiable database for each of the programmes.

According to the source, “It is one thing to have data and it is another thing to use the data. That does not exist under this programme. Now, what they want to do with this new payment is like generating QR Code without any database. It is all fictitious, because you cannot reconcile that data with any backend.

“Today, they are still disbursing cash with no transparency or electronic confirmation of receipt. This is the vacuum that exists whilst N745 billion (about $2bn) has been scheduled for disbursement in six months.”

The federal government said NCTP was designed to deliver timely and accessible cash transfers to vulnerable Nigerians.

But a report by the Africa Network for Environment and Economic Justice (ANEEJ), titled, “Spot Checks,” on payment to beneficiaries of NCTP revealed that most of the beneficiaries were in the northern part of the country.

The cash transfer programme, also known as Household Uplifting Programme (HUP), is one of the four social investment programmes of the federal government. It is managed by the National Cash Transfer Office (NCTO), domiciled in the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development.

While the federal government contributes 80% of the fund for the scheme, the World Bank contributes 20%. The 80% from the government comes from recovered loot from the late dictator, Sani Abacha. The World Bank was brought in to bring structure to the entire value chain.

The ANEEJ report indicated that 90.46% of the total funds disbursed to beneficiaries in the January to April 2020 cycle was paid to beneficiaries in the northern part of the country, while only 9.54% was paid to beneficiaries in the South.

ANEEJ said, “The implication of this is that a larger share of the resources is paid to more beneficiaries in the north than in the southern part of the country. Majority of the beneficiaries were paid N20,000 each, representing four months benefits (January – April 2020). Some were paid N10,000, depending on when they were enrolled.

 

“A few beneficiaries were paid arrears to cover for the period of November – December 2019, while a few others were paid top-up of N10,000 each as was seen in Anambra State.”

The report stressed that the present payment service providers (PSP) in the scheme did not have the capacity to effect electronic payment to CCT beneficiaries. It also showed that there were issues of intimidation of beneficiaries by community leaders on purpose to part with some of the allowances.

It revealed, “The cooperative organisations were getting between N2,000 – N4,000 from beneficiaries and some of the beneficiaries showed little understanding of the process. Issues of family conflict arising from the death of the caregiver, insecurity in some locations leading to the bringing together of beneficiaries of different payment points to one location, leading to crowd management crisis and the mix-up on the issue of CCT and Covid-19 palliative. These concerns were clearly manifested in Kogi State.”

It indicated that in some areas, the payment agents were short of cash and would have to go to the banks again and again, or re-schedule payment to beneficiaries to other days. This, it stated, happened repeatedly in Kogi and Oyo states, among others.

Additionally, the report said some payment points were very far from the benefiting communities, while and some had a very high population of beneficiaries.

“This usually leads to delay or late payment and some beneficiaries would now have to travel late to reach their respective communities. Some of these beneficiaries have been attacked previously on their way home,” the report stated.

Providing more insights into the corruption and inefficiency in the programme, another source at NCTO, who pleaded to remain anonymous, disclosed that people managing the cash transfer programme saw it as an avenue for corrupt enrichment and, thus, deliberately made the process opaque and inefficient.

The source alleged that the programme coordinators set up a fraudulent backend in the cash transfer office, adding that the backend was supposed to have all the beneficiaries who have been selected to participate in the programme.

The source said, “That data is gotten from the National Beneficiary Register. But the register doesn’t have unique identification. So, the NCTO pulls from that data bank. They appoint payment service providers, allocate states to them and send the list of all those qualified in various states to the service providers, ask them to create account numbers for the beneficiaries and they are expected to send the account numbers back to the NCTO.

“That is the beginning of the fraud. Normally, if you go to open a bank account, the first thing the bank is supposed to do is to see the person, validate the person before opening the account. But what they do here is that they make the service providers to open the bank accounts and the account details are sent to the NCTO.

 

“So, because they now have the data, they manipulate everything. Once they get the list, which most times is made of fictitious identities, they push the money to the service providers. When the service providers get the money, they are expected to go into the field to meet people they have never met before in their lives, register the beneficiaries and confirm they got the money. But out of the 15 service providers, only two can do that – Unified Payment and Visual ICT.

“There are three preferred service providers who control about 60% of the programme. Those are the firms that they use to primarily launder money. In the field, they line people up to take photographs and after the first 200 people have collected, that’s the end.”

Corroborating the ANEEJ report, the source added, “Where you even see people trying to do it sincerely, you find out that the state representatives extort money from beneficiaries, claiming that they were the ones that put their names on the list. So, for every N10, 000 they collect, the state representatives collect N2,000 from each person.

“This is the only World Bank supported programme in the world that is still doing cash and they are not willing to adjust because they are benefiting from the inefficiency.”

Obinna Chima

Tags: Disaster Management and Social DevelopmentMinister of Humanitarian AffairsNational Cash Transfer Programme (NCTP)Sadiya Farouq.
  • About
  • Advertise
  • Privacy & Policy
  • Contact

© 2020 Arise News - Part of the Arise Media Group.

No Result
View All Result
  • HOME
  • Breaking
  • Global
  • Regional
  • BUSINESS
  • Politics
    • US ELECTION
  • Entertainment
  • Sports
  • TECH
  • Health
  • VIDEOS
  • Covid-19 Updates

© 2020 Arise News - Part of the Arise Media Group.

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Create New Account!

Fill the forms bellow to register

All fields are required. Log In

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In

Add New Playlist