The Federal Government has disbursed more than N600 billion in cash transfers to vulnerable Nigerians over the past three years, reaching slightly over 10 million households.
Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Reduction Bernard Doro disclosed the cumulative cash transfer figure during an interview on Channels Television’s Politics Today on Wednesday.
The disclosure comes as the FG launches a new $1 billion social protection programme called the Household Prosperity and Empowerment Social Protection Project, also known as HOPE-SP, under the broader Renewed Hope Social Protection Programme.
The new programme, unveiled by First Lady Oluremi Tinubu, targets approximately 7.6 million vulnerable households nationwide, with each eligible household to receive a one-off digital shock-response transfer of N40,000.
The minister said the new programme marks a deliberate shift in the government’s poverty reduction approach, moving from distributing cash to actively tracking household progress toward economic self-reliance.
“
We’ve done over 600 billion in cash transfers to be able to support vulnerable Nigerians within three years. We have reached slightly over 10 million households,”
he said.
“
We have a system where we want to deliberately track poverty,”
he added, describing the HOPE-SP initiative as a more structured and measurable approach than previous interventions.
Defending the government’s economic reforms, Doro said the removal of petrol subsidy had contributed to greater economic stability, arguing that the overall impact of the reforms should ultimately be judged by Nigerians rather than by critics.
He rejected claims that seven million Nigerians had fallen into poverty under the current administration, saying the government was working to bring inflation down and rebuild the economy from its foundations.
Drawing a comparison with China’s poverty alleviation record, Doro said large-scale poverty reduction takes time.
“It took China 40 years to achieve the scale they achieved, Nigeria can scale up poverty reduction,
” he said.
Beneficiaries of the new HOPE-SP programme must be registered on the National Social Register and validated with a National Identification Number.
The government is working alongside the National Identity Management Commission to ease NIN registration and strengthen verification for eligible households.
Doro’s comments come against the backdrop of the Federal Government’s ongoing efforts to expand social protection and poverty-reduction programmes.
In February,
Nairametrics reported that approximately N330 billion had been disbursed to 8.11 million households
under the Conditional Cash Transfer scheme, while government data showed that about 19.78 million households were classified as vulnerable under the National Social Register.
Months later, the Federal Government announced a broader expansion of its social intervention efforts.
Nairametrics reported in July that the government had unveiled a $3.05 billion package of programmes aimed at reducing poverty, strengthening human capital and cushioning vulnerable Nigerians from economic shocks.
The package included about $1.25 billion in additional financing for the Nigeria Community Action for Resilience and Economic Stimulus (NG-CARES) programme, targeting smallholder farmers, vulnerable households, small businesses and community livelihood initiatives.
The expansion of social intervention programmes has also raised concerns about whether funding will reach the households they are intended to support.
The
Centre for the Promotion of Private Enterprise (CPPE) recently warned
that corruption, political interference and weak implementation could undermine the impact of the Federal Government’s new social intervention programmes.
The group said stronger safeguards are needed to minimise leakages and ensure that government support reaches intended beneficiaries.
The concerns are particularly relevant as the government expands programmes that involve large-scale transfers and seeks to move beneficiaries from short-term relief towards longer-term economic empowerment.
