Re: FG’s cash grant to rural women: Matters Arising

We hereby refer to the above titled article in your esteemed national newspaper, where one Abubakar picked holes in the Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) exercise which recently held in Minna, Niger State and wish to set the records straight about the many misconceptions raised by the writer.

With the exception of N80million disbursed to 4,000 rural women in Niger State, which the writer got right, all the other issues he raised in the article are not only misleading, but false in its entirety.

First, his claims that the disbursements were characterised by “disorderliness and double collections” is not true. Since her assumption of office as the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, Hajiya Sadiya Farouk has put in place a seamless system, where such perceived anomalies have been addressed.

Furthermore, contrary to Abubakar’s claims, the targeted poor, rural women, whom the CCT policy was specifically created for, were the real beneficiaries at the Minna event.

And contrary to the writer’s claims that the “beneficiaries were allegedly shortchanged,” because they were given N5,000 instead of N20,000, it is an open fact known to all Nigerians that only the sum of N5,000 was earmarked for the CCT, which makes the issue of beneficiaries being shortchanged a non-issue.

Yet, another wild claim that “some men dressed in embroidered flowing gowns came with lists of names” for the exercise is incorrect, as officials of the ministry, assisted by the focal person of the CCT in Niger State, strictly conformed to the registered names in the ministry’s portal.

A formal review of the exercise in Minna and other states where it took place clearly shows that a proper verification of the beneficiaries were carried out before disbursements were effected. Testimonies of such beneficiaries abound.

The suggestion by the writer that the state focal persons must liaise with ward heads, district heads, market leaders/unions, civil society organisations (CSOs) and religious leaders has long been adopted and practised by the ministry in carrying out its mandate of supporting the entrepreneurial advancement of poor, rural women as encapsulated in CCT.

Going forward, while the FMHDMSD under Hajiya Sadiya Farouk welcomes suggestions that would improve on the operational efficiency of the CCT, it is determined more than ever before to ensure the continued success of the policy.

Remi Adelowu sent this piece from Abuja