The National Economic Council in Nigeria has proposed a cash transfer programme in the country’s states that would be based on their social register.
The proposal was made following the report of the ad-hoc committee of the Council set up at its last meeting to look into palliatives that would be given to vulnerable Nigerians following the withdrawal of subsidy on petrol.
Governor Dapo Abiodun of Ogun State, South West Nigeria, who briefed the media after the meeting of the Council presided over by Vice President Kashim Shettima said the NEC also proposed cash awards to public servants for six months.
“We proposed accordingly a cash transfer programme that would be based on their social register of the state because it is the states that are better positioned to to that enumeration to ensure the integrity of the social register of the state.
“It was also proposed by the Council that we should implement a cash award policy for all public servants; that is a policy that allows each sub-national to pay the public servant a certain prescribed amount of cash on a monthly basis.
“It was prescribed that that should be implemented for six months in the first instance. The idea is that as much as we are also particular about ameliorating the pains of our people immediately, a lot of sustainable measures are being put in place.
“It is our hope that between now and the next six months, those sustainable measures would have begun to be visible and then we will begin taper down these cash awards.”
Abiodun said that the cash awards would be tax free.
According to Governor Abiodun, other proposals made at the meeting included increased funding for small businesses, the immediate implement of Nigeria’s Energy Transition Plan and the conversion of vehicles to be compressed natural gas compliant.
Minimum Wage
Governor Abiodun said that the NEC meeting also discussed the issue of wage increases as medium and long term measures.
“We looked at that as a medium to long term measure. We’re more focused on the immediate term measures that will bring succour to the lives of people.”
Governor Chukwuma Soludo of Anambra State, who spoke earlier at the briefing, said that the NEC meeting deliberated on how to cushion on the effects on the people of the petrol subsidy withdrawal and the floating of the naira.
Soludo said that the Council understands the effect of two policies on 225 million Nigerians with regards to price inflation, rising food prices, declining real incomes, job losses as well as impact on businesses.
“The ad-hoc committee had to do some estimate on the potential fiscal surplus that arise as a consequence of these changes and of course improvement in the efficiency of revenue collection.
“Let me be clear that while we are also conscious that the economy needs a massive injection of resources, we also face a paradox that we also have to be restraining because prices are also rising.
“There is a magnitude to which you pump in money into the system and then inflation even gets higher; exchange rate depreciates the more; and the more the exchange rate depreciates, the more there will be pressure for pump of fuel to also rise.”
Clarifies FAAC distributions
Prof. Soludo used the opportunity of the briefing to clarify that the amount of money distributed to the federal, state, and local governments was about N900 billion and about N1.9 trillion being circulated in the social media.
PIAK