The National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Professor Nentawe Yilwatda, has said that more than 10 million Nigerians who benefited from the Federal Government’s conditional cash transfer programme do not have access to mobile phones or social media.
Yilwatda made the statement on Saturday while responding to questions from journalists after a three-day retreat of the APC National Executive Council in Maiduguri, Borno State.
According to him, the beneficiaries are among poor and vulnerable Nigerians who received N75,000 through the conditional cash transfer programme under the Federal Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Reduction.
He said the government had provided the payment to more than 10 million Nigerians across the country as part of its social intervention programmes.
Yilwatda explained that the beneficiaries were largely absent from public discussions about government policies because many of them do not have phones, television sets or access to social media platforms.
“We have given 75,000 naira to over 10 million Nigerians across the country using the conditional cash transfer under the ministry of humanitarian affairs and poverty reduction,” he said.
He added that many of the beneficiaries could not participate in public debates or challenge government policies in the same way as Nigerians with access to digital platforms.
The APC chairman also highlighted other initiatives of the President Bola Tinubu administration, including road infrastructure, student loans and humanitarian interventions.
His comments come amid wider public discussions about the reach and impact of the Federal Government’s social intervention programmes.
Separately, a recent report by the Auditor-General for the Federation raised concerns over the verification of some earlier cash-transfer payments, saying there was insufficient evidence to establish that N33.75 billion disbursed to more than 3.29 million households in 2023 reached genuine beneficiaries.
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