FG To Pay N25,000 Grants To Vulnerable Pensioners

Minister For Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation Dr. Betta Edu, on Wednesday, said the Federal Government will commence the payment of N25,000 grants to members of the Nigeria Union of Pensioners (NUP) captured in the expanded National Social Register of the Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) scheme next month.

The Minister disclosed this in a meeting with the leadership of the Nigerian Labour Congress, NLC led by its President, Comrade Joe Ajaero at the Labour House, Abuja.

Edu while maintaining that the decision to include vulnerable pensioners in the CCT scheme was President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s commitment to labour leaders, said, “The President mentioned very clearly that vulnerable pensioners should be immediately captured on the National Social Register and benefit from the Conditional Cash Transfer, as part of the national social safety net expansion and this was made clear in his speech on Independence Day where he committed N25,000 for 15 million households for three months.”

She urged the NLC to help fast-track the process of collating Data of would-be vulnerable pensioner beneficiaries.

She continued, “I want us to fast-track this. If we can get this data and information within two weeks, we are sure that you will be beneficiaries immediately and you can start earning from next month which is November, that’s the main reason why I’m here.”

In his remarks, Comrade Joe Ajaero said getting to the root cause of poverty would go a long way in addressing the problem.

He said, “Let’s look at not only how to solve this problem, but the cause of it, if we continue to treat the effects of poverty the problem will persist. Let us look at other social welfare interventions and job creation that will go a long way to support families.”

• Kazeem Badmus