Nentawe Yilwatda: We’ve ended cash-based interventions in humanitarian ministry

Nentawe Yilwatda, minister of humanitarian affairs, disaster management, and social development, says cash-based interventions are no longer a thing in his ministry.

Speaking on Arise Television on Wednesday, Yilwatda said all interventions will now be disbursed electronically using bank details captured in the social register.

He added that the ministry is also in the process of capturing the digital identities of individuals in the register and geo-tagging “every home” to differentiate between the “rich, poor, and the poorest of the poor” for poverty alleviation interventions.

“There is no physical distribution of cash to anybody again, so you will never see anybody sharing money to people in the marketplace, the stadium… that has stopped,” he said.

“What we are doing now is that for money to be given to anyone, we are going to make transfers to each of the accounts captured.

“We are also capturing the digital identity of the people on the register, and we are geo-tagging every home so that you can see the location of the house, who is there, and get a view of the kind of homes they live in.”

The minister also said five million Nigerians benefited from the first tranche of the conditional cash transfer scheme between October and November 2024, while 1.4 million Nigerians were paid in the second tranche.