The Federal Government has commenced digitization of Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) in Kwara State for easy payment to deserving beneficiaries.
The beneficiaries comprised the poor, needy and vulnerable section of the society.
The digitization was piloted with 413 beneficiaries in two electoral wards in Ilorin South Local Government Area of the state, out of the targeted 2,143 beneficiaries.
The digitization, which is under the Household Uplifting Programme of the Federal Government, is to reduce the risk of going about with raw cash as the nation was transforming into a cashless society.
The head of the State Transfer Unit (Kwara SCTU), Dr. Aminah Yahaya, said the programme was put in place to adopt a new payment system to reduce the hardship the beneficiaries go through before they get paid.
According to her, the new payment plan is opened to the beneficiaries between 8 a.m and 4 pm daily for wider and effective coverage of the beneficiaries.
“As we started today, we are also evaluating to see if it will be sustainable or not.
“I don’t want to draw conclusions yet but the feedback is encouraging so far, we will see from our end too,” Yahaya said.
She explained that the beneficiaries have a 30-day window period to cash out or risk not been paid for the month.
Yahaya further explained that beneficiaries can now either approach accredited payment points to collect their monthly N5,000 cash or transfer the same to their existing bank account.
The Kwara SCTU head said the beneficiaries were paid their backlog of January to April, which translated to N20,000 per beneficiary.
She also explained that payment is ongoing in the other 15 local government areas of the state.
Some of the beneficiaries who spoke in separate interviews commended President Muhammadu Buhari for remembering them.
One of the beneficiaries, Afusat Haruna, said the digitization is far better than the previous pattern of payment which was tedious and cumbersome.
Haruna said it is seamless, fast, risk-free, and timely with fewer people involved because of the COVID-19 pandemic protocols, unlike before where many people were made to line up in long queues before they got paid.
Another beneficiary, Nafisat Kazeem, thanked Buhari for the gesture, adding that it is the first time she is benefitting anything from the President or the federal government directly.
“I prefer the new payment system, it is very easy. I want to sincerely thank the government for remembering us, this is taking care of something,” Kazeem said.
There were no fewer than 34,300 registered beneficiaries of the scheme in Kwara.
