By Harry Awurumibe, Editor, Abuja Bureau
The National Economic Council (NEC) on Thursday unanimously resolved to do away with the much-criticised National Social Register used by the Muhammadu Buhari administration to implement its Conditional Cash Transfer.
Arising from its meeting at the Presidential Villa, Abuja NEC informed that the so-called Register had integrity issues as the criteria for its compilation was unclear and suspicious.
Briefing State House Correspondents after the meeting, Anambra state governor, Professor Chukwuma Soludo said contrary to what the previous administration projected, it is not possible to digitally transfer money to the poorest of the poor the majority of whom are unbankable.
The former Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) who was flanked by his Bauchi and Ogun state colleagues, Bala Mohammed and Dapo Abiodun, respectively, Soludo noted that beneficiaries of the supposedly transfered cash could not be identified in the villages.
He said NEC resolved that the states should come up with their own registers using formal and informal means to develop it, assuring that all beneficiaries at the subnational level could easily been accessed that way.
“We need to face the problem of the fact that we don’t have a credible register. Many of the people whose names are said to be in the register can not be traced and this create doubts in the minds of the public”, he said.
Soludo affirmed that NEC deliberated on ways to cushion the impact of the recent petroleum subsidy removal.
Also speaking at the briefing, Acting CBN Governor Folashodun Shonubi said Chairman of the Federal Inland Revenue making a presentation on what they have done so far, the level of collections.
Said he: “It was nice to know that they are ahead of their target for half year. And we expect that before or by the time the year ends they would exceed.
“They also gave us some idea of what next year should be like from them. And from this year, we hope to make some N10 trillion. It is planning that next year, we should be able working with all the agencies provide N25 trillion as their contribution to the national coffers”.
