Palliative: N8,000 cash transfer is a scam — Kaduna governor

Uba Sani, the Governor of Kaduna State, has stated that the proposed cash transfer scheme of the Federal Government is a con job.

In an earlier proposal, the Tinubu administration had suggested transferring N8,000 to each of the nation’s 12 million households each month for the next half a year as a means of mitigating the negative effects of the elimination of the petrol subsidy.

After receiving negative feedback from Nigerians, the initiative was eventually abandoned.

On Friday, Sani indicated that there is not an accurate database of those who will benefit from the project while appearing in an interview with Arise Television’s News Night programme.

The governor made the following statement: “My stance has always been that, at this critical time, cash transfer should not be something that we should bring up. I stand by that position.” My opinion is that the cash transfer is a hoax, and I believe it to be one. It’s a complete and total con. Because of this, I am able to state with complete assurance that you are not telling me the truth.

“I’ll give you an example; look out the most recent data, for instance. As I previously mentioned, I have served as the Chairman of the Committee of Banking in Nigeria for the past four years. In that capacity, I have been responsible for supervising the Central Bank of Nigeria as well as all of the commercial sectors of our economy. Having examined the relevant statistics, I want to take a very clear stance about this matter, and I invite you to verify my claims for yourselves.

“Around seventy to seventy-five percent of the rural population in the North West is completely cut off from the financial system. You will need to go check, as the persons we are referring to are significant members of the society. They do not even have a bank account, so who are you planning to send the money to if you are transferring it?

Before beginning to implement the cash transfer programme, the governor recommended that the government first ensure that the individuals who are excluded from the financial system are cared for and brought into the system before beginning to do so in the North West specifically.

“Let’s try to work very hard to ensure that they are financially included; this is the most essential thing, and I will like to call on our development partners, the World Bank, to invest more money towards getting more people into the financial sector, and the vulnerable in particular. ”

“Let’s put more money into ensuring that we open accounts for them and get them involved,” he said. “If we don’t do that, money will flow to the wrong people regardless of what we do or how you do it; that’s the fact.”