ISSUES IN THE CASH TRANSFER PROGRAMME

There should be more to conditional cash transfer than sharing money The latest reports that the cash-based social intervention programme of the current administration has reached no fewer than 67.19 million people and about 10.44 million households by August 2026, have continued to elicit debate. Some of the issues being raised include the identification and traceability of beneficiaries, especially against the background of the recent 2024 annual report of the Office of the Auditor General of the Federation. Among other infractions, the report revealed non-compliance/internal control weaknesses while questioning the documentation supporting N33.751 billion in electronic transfers to 3,295,207 households and beneficiaries across 35 states in 2023. Managed by the National Cash Transfer Office (NTCO) and the National Social Investment Programme Agency (NSIPA) under the supervision of the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and the Federal Ministry of Finance, each eligible household captured in the programme received a total of N75,000, split into three monthly tranches of N25,000 each. While such an amount of money cannot meaningfully address the challenge of poverty, the real issue is transparency and accountability. According to the 2024 audit report, the payment vouchers did not contain full beneficiary details while the information required to reconcile those who received the payments with persons listed on the national social register and national beneficiary register was not presented for examination. Beyond the issue of transparency and accountability, we are also concerned that this transfer is not tied to anything beyond beneficiaries being recognised as ‘poor’. Besides, there should be more to conditional cash transfer than just sharing money that is not tied to anything. Several ideas have been tried in the past. Under the Goodluck Jonathan administration, for instance, the federal government paid women who attended antenatal clinics N5,000 each in the bid to tackle the menace of maternal mortality. The plan was executed as part of the Midwifery Service Scheme (MSS) introduced in 2010. More than 4,000 midwives were deployed to 1,000 health facilities nationwide under the MSS. Although some federal government officials have touted different figures to make claims about the success of the conditional cash scheme, there is not much evidence to suggest that it is working. In fact, the 2024 audit report stated that it was difficult to authenticate the payments or establish whether the beneficiaries who received the money were genuine. Considering that there have been several such programmes in the past, several questions beg for answers on what lessons are being taken onboard if any. But the critical point is that this programme ought to have been targeted at addressing a problem to make it impactful. For instance, high maternal deaths in Nigeria have been traced to lack of accessible, acceptable and affordable primary, secondary and tertiary health care; lack of drugs, dearth of skilled personnel, poor referral linkages in our hospitals, among others. As a result of the removal of fuel subsidy and the floating of the naira, virtually all the 36 states have got at least 40 per cent boost in federal allocations in the past three years. Unfortunately, many of these states still struggle to pick up their routine bills. Yet, they expend huge sums of money on frivolities. The indices of poverty across the country make it difficult to understand the recklessness in many of the states. Against the background of the virtual collapse of the welfare state that has accentuated corruption in the land, supporting conditional cash transfers designed with the specific purpose of enabling mothers to access healthcare would have been a worthy cause for such a government intervention.