The Federal Government has confirmed that more than 5.5 million Nigerian households are now actively receiving cash transfers under its expanding national social protection programme, marking one of the largest coordinated financial-support interventions ever recorded in the country. The announcement highlights the scale of current economic hardship and the administration’s intensified efforts to cushion vulnerable citizens amid rising inflation, high food prices, and increasingly unstable livelihoods.
According to the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Reduction, the new figure reflects months of verification, digital onboarding, and expansion of the National Social Register, which now contains close to 20 million vulnerable households across all 36 states and the FCT. When household sizes are taken into account, the number of direct beneficiaries already exceeds 30 million Nigerians, making the current social protection intervention both unprecedented and essential during this period of economic strain.
Government officials explained that the payments are issued under several interconnected schemes, with the Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) being the most prominent. Through this scheme, each approved household receives a total of ₦75,000, paid in three phases of ₦25,000 each. This is part of the government’s redesign of relief programmes, shifting from physical cash handling to digital transfers delivered straight into verified beneficiary bank accounts or mobile wallets. Officials reiterated that this new process is intended to cut out middlemen, reduce fraud, and ensure transparency.
To further strengthen verification, the government now requires beneficiaries to be authenticated using their National Identification Number (NIN) or Bank Verification Number (BVN). Authorities noted that this has sharply reduced the chances of duplicate entries, unqualified beneficiaries, or ghost names appearing on payment lists. The ministry insisted that the new system is cleaner, more accountable, and better aligned with global best practices for social welfare distribution.
In announcing the latest figures, the government also disclosed that more than ₦330 billion has already been disbursed through cash-transfer components of the national social safety-net programme. This amount covers payments made across multiple phases and includes households supported through the Rapid Response Register (RRR), the Government Enterprise and Empowerment Programme (GEEP), and targeted grants to vulnerable groups. Additional programmes such as the National Home-Grown School Feeding Initiative and N-Power continue to operate under the broader social-protection structure, providing additional relief layers for households facing multidimensional poverty.
Despite the scale of the intervention, a number of structural concerns remain. One of the most debated issues is the selection criteria used to determine which households receive immediate support. With nearly 20 million households on the National Social Register and just 5.5 million currently benefitting, many Nigerians question how prioritization decisions are made and what factors influence eligibility. The government has stated that the process considers poverty levels, vulnerability indicators, special-needs categories, and geographic distribution, but the full methodology has not been publicly detailed.
Another major point of public concern relates to sustainability. Nigeria continues to grapple with revenue pressures, rising debt, and high inflation. Critics argue that while the cash transfers provide temporary relief, the government must make clear how it plans to sustain payments and whether funding has been secured for long-term continuity. Economists also warn that cash transfers alone cannot address the root causes of poverty unless paired with employment creation, agricultural support, education improvements, and economic structural reforms.
Government officials, however, maintain that strengthening the national safety-net system is not a standalone solution but a foundational component of broader poverty-reduction reforms. They emphasised that Nigeria is moving toward a shock-responsive social-protection framework capable of adjusting to emergencies such as economic downturns, conflicts, natural disasters, and climate-related crises. The ministry also confirmed that it is currently updating the National Social Protection Policy and deepening partnerships with international development organisations to enhance data quality, beneficiary targeting, monitoring, and evaluation processes.
