The Federal Government of Nigeria has announced that the humanitarian trust fund portal that is currently being circulated in Nigeria is fake. The Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation, Betta Edu, in a statement issued in Abuja, informed the general public that a circulating portal tagged “FG Humanitarian and Poverty Alleviation Trust Fund Portal,” was fake. She said that the portal did not emanate from her ministry, stressing that it was created by undesirable elements with the sole intention of defrauding unsuspecting members of the public.
Edu said that there would never be a portal from either her ministry or any other ministry, department or agency of government or its partners that would request the public to apply for, or access funds from the humanitarian and poverty alleviation trust fund. “The general public is therefore advised to discountenance the circulating link to the alleged portal as it is a creation of fraudsters,” the minister stated. This could be a plot to steal people’s data and/or Scam them of money.
Canada ready to support Tinubu’s agenda in poverty alleviation.
In another development, the humanitarian ministry said that the Canadian government had expressed readiness to support President Bola Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda in poverty alleviation. It said in a statement that the Canadian High Commissioner to Nigeria, Jamie Christoff, made this known when he led his team to visit Edu at her office in Abuja. Christoff said that the Canadian government had committed to put in $152 million as part of their assistance to Nigeria for various programs, while $18 million was earmarked for humanitarian response.
He was quoted as saying, “I am here with my team to register our support to the mandate of the President in his efforts to alleviate poverty and reduce humanitarian crises in Nigeria through your ministry.” Responding, Edu informed the commissioner of the determination of the Federal Government to significantly tackle multidimensional poverty and humanitarian crises in Nigeria by 2030 in line with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) target. According to the Nigeria Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) 2022, there are nearly 133 million multidimensional poor people in Nigeria, which accounts for up to 63 percent of Nigerian population.
House of Reps committee invites Betta Edu to appear before them.
Meanwhile, the House of Representatives Committees on Constituency Outreach and Poverty Alleviation has invited the minister to appear before them for a briefing on the formula adopted for the distribution of the sum of N1.1 trillion conditional Cash transfer to 15 million households across the country. The resolution followed a motion of urgent public importance brought before the House during plenary by the lawmaker representing Irepodun/Olorunda/Osogbo/Orolu Federal Constituency, Osun State, Morufu Adebayo. Earlier, the minister had said that following the approval of the sum of N1.1 trillion for the scheme, the ministry would launch the conditional transfer with effect from October 17. She assured Nigerians that work was ongoing with critical stakeholders to update the register of the intended beneficiaries.
Leading the debate on the floor of the House, Honourable Adebayo noted that the conditional cash transfer program is an immediate intervention by the Federal Government to cushion the effect of the removal of petrol subsidy and other economic shocks for vulnerable groups in Nigeria. As well, he added that the scheme is one of the 15 items in the memorandum of understanding between the Federal Government and organized labour on October 2, 2023. Also, 15 million households will be receiving N25,000 each over three months according to the program. However, the lawmaker said that there has been a lot of unsatisfactory feedback from the ways and manners palliative to vulnerable Nigerians have been handled by some ministries, departments and agencies which has not in any way reduced hardship in the land.
Reps mandates the minister to account for funds.
Adebayo reminded the House about the ugly scenario witnessed during the COVID-19 palliative distribution a few years ago, where items from international donors meant to cushion the effect of the pandemic were mismanaged. Following the adoption of the motion, the House mandated its committees on constituency outreach and poverty alleviation to invite the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation, Betta Edu, “To give detailed policy documents adopted in allocation and distribution of funds for the conditional cash transfer to ensure transparency and accountability which are fundamental principles of Good Governance.”
