N8000 Palliative: Who Are You Transferring The Money To?- Kaduna Governor, Uba Sani Questions FG
The Governor of Kaduna State, Uba Sani has criticised the decision of the Federal Government to transfer N8,000 to 12 million Nigerian households for six months in order to ease the effect of the removal of petrol subsidy.
Governor Sani during an interview with ARISE Television, questioned the Tinubu- led administration on who they want to send the money to as majority of the indigent Nigerians live in rural areas and according to him, 70 to 75 per cent of the rural population in the North-West do not even have bank accounts.
Sani, also mentioned that he strongly believes that the now- suspended palliative is a scam as there was no certainty of an accurate and updated database of the Nigerian people that would benefit from the scheme.
The governor said, “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 society. They do not even have a bank account so who are you transferring the money to?”
“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,”.
The governor also noted that the government should ensure that the financially excluded individuals especially in the North West are addressed and brought into the financial system before implementing the cash transfer programme.
Many Nigerians, however, did not welcome the Federal Government’s palliative which forced President Tinubu to retract his position on the N8,000 cash transfer; stating it need for a review.
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