by Faith Yahaya
The Federal Government on Thursday commenced payment of the second phase of the Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) in the Federal Capital Territory.
At the flag-off of the upgraded Household Uplifting Programme, the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development Sadiya Farouq stated that an initial 23,893 beneficiaries will benefit from the programme.
The beneficiaries are drawn from Abaji, Kuje and Kwali area councils in the FCT.
Farouq, in a statement by her media aide, Nneka Anibeze said: “With the flag-off today, payments will recommence in all participating states in the country. In the FCT, payment recommences for a total of 23,893 beneficiaries across three area councils of Abaji, Kuje and Kwali.
“The Ministry has directed the NCTO to proceed with a phased migration of the beneficiaries from offline payment systems to open online systems using accounts opened by licensed Payment Service Providers (PSPs) that include Commercial Banks, Microfinance Banks, Payments Service Banks and Mobile Money Operators.
“With this development, beneficiaries can access or control their accounts through the use of Personal Identification Numbers (PIN), perform all transactions like withdrawals, bank transfers and bill payments etc.
“For now, 25% of the beneficiaries are targeted and we will gradually extend this to all beneficiaries as far as the industry constraints would allow”.