We didn’t share N192bn to pregnant women, lactating mothers — Jigawa Govt debunks claim

By Umar Akilu Majeri

The Jigawa State government has debunked the publication by some online newspapers, stating that the government shared over N192 billion naira to pregnant women and lactating mothers in the state.

Describing the story as distorted and misinformed, the Executive Secretary of the State Rehabilitation Board, Dr Ibrahim Rabakaya dismissed the information while speaking to newsmen in his office.

He said, “The whole annual budget of the ‘Cash Transfer to Pregnant Women’ programme is N600 million. So I don’t  know where the reporter got his story with that outrageous figure which are higher than the state annual budget.”

Dr Rabakaya explained that the reporter who made the wrong report just watched the presentation he made during a workshop with Kaduna state team held in Kano state and independently arrived to his wrong calculation of the actual figure or amount of money distributed.

He explained that the “Cash Transfer” to pregnant women was initiated under the state Social Security programme, aimed at tackling child malnutrition and the high rate of maternal mortality.

According to him, “20 pregnant women were selected from each of 287 political wards in the state, making total of 5,740 beneficiaries who are receiving N4,000 each monthly.

“We commenced the cash transfer in November last year 2021 and to date, we have distributed N226,740,800.00 to the beneficiaries.

“This cash transfer to pregnant women, we copied it from the pilot project executed in three local government areas of the state by Action Against Hunger (ACF) and we scaled it to all 27 LGAs.”

He than called on the general public to disregard the previous wrong information written by some online newspapers and use the present figure, which is also available with Fidelity Bank for further verification.