The Federal Government has disbursed over N62.7 million to 3,829 vulnerable women in Guri Local Government Area of Jigawa, under the Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) scheme.
Alhaji Abubakar Dan-Barde, Cash Transfer Unit’s Co-ordinator in the area, made the disclosure to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Guri on Monday.
He said each of the beneficiaries received N10,000 as a stipend for the months of October and November (ie, N5,000 per month).
Dan-Barde, however, said 1,219 of the women, who were either pregnant or breastfeeding, received additional N20,000 each.
“The scheme had sometime in August approved the payment of additional N10,000 to each pregnant and breastfeeding woman per month.
“Therefore, this set of 1,219 women were paid additional N20,000 for the months of September and October
“This means that this set of women have received a total of N36.6 million,” the coordinator said.
Dan-Barde announced that the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, had provided 114 mobile phones to 114 groups formed by the beneficiaries.
“We earlier advised the women to form groups and make contributions so as to compliment the monthly stipend paid to them.
“Recently, the ministry sent 114 phones to heads of these groups of not less than 10 women so that it can always contact the groups directly to make inquiries on the scheme.
“Each member deducts N2,000 from her stipend and contributes; whatever that is realised is given to two members to increase their capitals.
“Beneficiaries of this contribution are expected to also continue contributing so that other members can benefit,” the coordinator said.
The CCT is a federal government programme aimed at reducing poverty and making welfare programmes conditional upon the beneficiaries actions.
The conditions include: showing evidence of immunisation, antenatal attendance and environmental sanitation.