The Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, Sadiya Umar Farouq, has terminated the contracts of two payment service providers (PSP) for delaying the Conditional Cash Transfer to beneficiaries in four states of the federation.
Ms Farouq said this a statement signed by her spokesperson, Salisu Dambatta, on Tuesday.
PSPs are contracted by the federal government to make payment to the vulnerable persons on behalf of the government.
The states in which the payment was delayed are Bayelsa and Akwa Ibom in the South-South, Abia in the South-East, and Zamfara in the North-West.
The minister said the termination of the contract was under the guidance of the World Bank, which is a fund provider of the scheme.
“The termination is with the procurement process launched using World Bank procurement guidelines to ensure that payments commence in the affected states on or before April 28, 2020.”
The minister said the federal government would not accept delays under any excuses in the current payment round of N20,000 stipends to beneficiaries in poor and vulnerable households in the four states or any other state of the federation.
“The failure of any payment service providers to meet their contractual agreement is unacceptable. The Federal Government through the Ministry cannot allow contractors to derail the immediate conditional cash transfers to the poor and the vulnerable,” the minister added.
President Muhammadu Buhari on Monday during his second address to Nigerians had ordered the ministry to continue the disbursement of cash transfers and food distribution to vulnerable households as efforts to tackle the COVID-19 impact on the economy.
He also ordered increment of the National Social Register (NSR) by one million up from 2.6 million households to cushion the effects of the coronavirus.
