Federal Government says Nigerians with less than N5,000 in their bank accounts will be among the three categories of people to benefit from the palliatives to cushion the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, Mrs Sadiya Umar Farouq, said this while addressing State House reporters.

She said based on President Muhammadu Buhari’s directive that beneficiaries of the Conditional Cash Transfer be expanded by one million, the ministry would focus more now on the urban poor.

“These are people who depend on the informal sector to earn their livelihood; they’re daily wage earners and these are the people we’re really going to focus more on as well as people living with disabilities.

“Well, we have three options. One, we’re going to use the national social register that we already have.

Two, we’re also going to focus on the urban poor by using their verified BVN accounts to get them; that is, people that have an account balance of N5,000 and below.

“We’re also using the mobile networks to know people that top up the credit units for their phones with may be N100 or less. Those are also people that we consider to be poor and vulnerable. So, these are the three options we’re exploring and I’m sure that by the time we get this data, we’ll be able to give this intervention.

“Let me also say that we have a standard. 25 percent of the total population is what we’ll take out. It cannot go round everywhere, but we’re starting from somewhere 25 percent. Going forward, we might expand it, but this is what’s obtainable for now.”

The minister clarified that the N21bn support given to Nigeria by the European Union to fight COVID-19 “is coming in kind basically by way of medical equipment and also some structure to be put in place as a response to this COVID-19 pandemic.”

Daily Trust