Kaduna State Governor, Uba Sani, has slammed the Federal government’s plan to give N8,000 cash to 12 million poor Nigerians as a way of easing the impact of fuel subsidy removal. He described the plan as a ‘scam’ and questioned the reliability of the social register that will be used to identify the beneficiaries.
Speaking to Arise Television, Sani said he doubted the existence of an accurate and updated database of the Nigerian people who need the cash assistance. He said most of the rural population in the North West region, where he comes from, are financially excluded and do not have bank accounts.
“My position has always been that, at this critical time, cash transfer should not be something that we should bring up. I think that cash transfer for me, in my opinion, is a scam. Completely it’s a scam. I can be very certain about that, because who are you transferring the money to?
“Let me give an example, go and check the current statistics. Like I said, as the Chairman, Committee of Banking for four years in Nigeria, I oversight Central Bank, I oversight all the commercial sectors of our economy for the last four years and I looked at the statistics, I will be very firm on this issue and you can go and check it.
About 70 to 75 per cent of the rural population in North West are financially excluded completely. You will have to go and check, these people we are talking about are important people in the society. They do not even have a bank account so who are you transferring the money to?” he said.
Sani also said that the social register was outdated and lacked credibility, as some local governments in his state were not captured due to insecurity.
He said this was why he supported the position of the National Executive Council (NEC) that the social register should be updated before any cash transfer is done.
“In my opinion, what we said was that the social register should be updated. If you are aware, some of the names were put together as far back as 2019. And of course, nothing is constant.
“For example, some local governments in my state are not captured largely because of the insecurity in the state, and believe me, truly, the social register lacks credibility,” he said.
Sani’s comments come after the Federal Government announced plans to remove fuel subsidy in the coming months. The government has said that it will use the money saved from the subsidy removal to fund social programs, such as the cash transfer plan.
However, Sani and other critics have argued that the cash transfer plan is not a well-thought-out scheme and that it is likely to be ineffective. They have also pointed out that the government does not have the capacity to implement such a large-scale program.
The Federal Government has not yet responded to Sani’s criticism.
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