FG earmarks N8.5bn for Conditional Cash Transfer in Katsina — State Coordinator

The Federal Government is to distribute N8.5billion under its Conditional Cash Transfer Scheme to lift over 144, 000 households out of poverty in Katsina State.

Katsina State Coordinator of the Scheme, Alhaji Shafi’u Abdullahi, gave the figure in an interview with the newsmen on Friday in Katsina.

Abdullahi stated that the money would be shared to the beneficiaries in two phases.

“Right now that I am speaking to you, we are sharing the money under the Phase One of the programme.

“We are now sharing N4.250 billion; then, after 10 days, we will share the remaining N4.250 billion, which takes the total money to be shared to N8.5billion,” he said.

According to him, the money is meant for the one year that the programme was suspended by the government to ensure that it gets to the right beneficiaries.

“Now, we have come back to it; all necessary steps have been taken to ensure the success of the programme.

“The FGN wants to uplift many households from poverty to prosperity under its social security.

“Under the CCT, each woman is given N5, 000 every month, which means that she is entitled to N60, 000 a year, to add value to her life.

“It is for this reason, just as I earlier stated, that we have started to pay half of the amount to the over 144,000 households; we will complete the remaining half in the next 10 days,” Abdullahi said.

He described the rumour that the government had stopped the programme as unfounded.

The coordinator stated that the programme had been implemented in 12 out of the 34 local government areas of the state.

Abdullahi noted that efforts were being intensified to cover the remaining 22 local government areas.

Reports state that the fund had been distributed to households in Batagarawa, Daura, Ingawa and Bindawa Local Government Areas of the state.