The federal authorities has disclosed that it spent roughly ₦330 billion on social security internet programmes between January and September 2025, concentrating on the poorest and most susceptible households throughout the nation.
The minister of finance and coordinating minister of the financial system, Mr Wale Edun, and the nationwide coordinator of the Nationwide Social Security Web Coordinating Workplace (NASSCO), Ms Funmi Olotu, introduced the figures on Wednesday throughout a joint press briefing on the ministry’s headquarters in Abuja.
The renewed effort beneath President Bola Tinubu’s administration adopted the February 2024 institution of the Particular Presidential Panel on Social Funding Programmes. The panel was tasked with strengthening social safety measures to cushion the impression of financial reforms, significantly rising costs.
In line with Mr Edun, the programme is “now firmly again on monitor” after present process reforms to make sure transparency, accountability, and sustainability.
“What has been put in place is a really sturdy system. Individuals are recognized biometrically by their Nationwide Identification Quantity (NIN) and are paid digitally into their financial institution accounts or cell wallets,” the minister acknowledged.
Edun defined that the present system ensures a contemporary, long-term construction for social safety in Nigeria.
“In any fashionable financial system, a social security internet is a vital facet. Nigeria now has the idea for a contemporary social safety system. That was the promise of Mr President, and that’s what he’s now putting in,” he mentioned.
The administration had set a goal of reaching 15 million households nationwide, with the expectation {that a} additional seven million would obtain funds earlier than the top of the yr.
“We count on that there would be the skill to funds annually for help to individuals to be paid straight at any given time limit,” he added.
The programme initially aimed to offer ₦5,000 month-to-month funds to households for six months beneath the earlier administration, funded by an $800 million World Financial institution mortgage facility. Nonetheless, President Tinubu’s authorities elevated the profit to ₦25,000 per family, citing the necessity to provide larger reduction within the face of difficult reforms corresponding to gas subsidy removing and alternate price unification.
“The rise created a funding hole, which the Federal Authorities is overlaying to make sure the programme stays on track,” Edun defined.
Offering additional particulars, NASSCO’s nationwide coordinator, Ms Olotu, revealed that no less than 8.1 million households had up to now benefited from the initiative, with some receiving one, two, or three tranches of the ₦25,000 fee.
She attributed the staggered disbursements to the combination of the Nationwide Identification Quantity into the Nationwide Social Register.
“Now we have visited about 7.9 million households and obtained roughly 10.2 million NINs, of which the Nationwide Identification Administration Fee (NIMC) has validated 9.6 million. Funds are made straight into beneficiaries’ accounts as soon as their NINs are validated,” she defined.
Ms Olotu pressured that the register was constructed on globally recognised requirements and is devoid of political affect.
“The Nationwide Social Register was in-built collaboration between the Authorities of Nigeria and the World Financial institution. It makes use of about 40 variables to determine households. It isn’t a political register,” she mentioned.
She disclosed that the register presently comprises information on over 70 million people, representing roughly 19.7 million households nationwide. In line with her, enlargement is ongoing with assist from growth companions, however the final objective is for all people within the register to profit.
“By the top of this train, all people on the register – over 70 million people – ought to have their cash,” Olotu mentioned.
Each officers emphasised that the digitised, NIN-linked framework would strengthen transparency, forestall leakages, and be certain that authorities interventions attain solely the meant beneficiaries.
They maintained that the reforms not solely present speedy reduction but in addition lay the muse for a contemporary, sustainable social security internet system able to responding to future shocks.
