World Bank: FG’s cash transfer scheme increased household savings — but had little impact on employment

The World Bank says the conditional cash transfer (CCT) programme of the federal government has had a limited impact on household consumption and financial inclusion.

The Bretton Woods institution disclosed this in its latest report, titled, ‘Beta Don Come: Effects of Cash Transfers on Women and Households in Nigeria’.

According to the report, the intervention also had a limited impact on employment, especially for women.

The report cited the 2016 cash transfer programme when the federal government launched the National Social Safety Nets Project (NASSP).

At the launch of the programme, it said, the federal government had provided households a cash transfer of N 5,000, disbursed as a lump sum every two months.

Payments were given to each household’s primary caregiver — predominantly women — the report stated.

The World Bank, however, suggested that there is a need for a complementary livelihood to support the intervention to generate sustainable improvements in households’ self-sufficiency.

“Program participation improved several dimensions of households’ and women’s welfare over time,” the report reads.

“Households in communities that entered the program earlier experience larger increases in household savings and food security, along with increased access to farmland and livestock ownership, compared to similar households in communities that entered the program later.

“We also find improvements in caregivers’ self-reported happiness, decision-making autonomy over how to spend their own income, and freedom of movement.

“Positive impacts appear to primarily result from the saving mobilisation component of the program.

“Households are substantially more likely to save the longer they have been receiving cash transfers and to switch away from exclusively using the cash for household consumption.

“However, in contrast to these strong positive impacts, we do not find any statistically significant effects on overall household consumption or on caregivers’ employment and financial inclusion.”

The World Bank also said in spite of the efficacy of the CCT programme, there is no evidence to “the impacts of participating in the program at all”.

“We find positive effects on households’ saving, food security, and economic activity along with increased caregivers’ decision-making autonomy and physical mobility associated with participating in the project for longer periods of time,” the report added.

“Nonetheless, the limited impacts on household consumption and women’s employment suggest that there is remaining scope for a complementary livelihood support intervention to generate sustainable improvements in households’ self-sufficiency.”

Approved in 2016, the CCT programme was established to benefit poor and vulnerable Nigerians with a monthly stipend of N5,000.

On July 13, 2023, President Bola Tinubu asked the senate to approve the $800 million loan request.

The president had said the loan would be used to scale up the national social safety net programme and cushion the effect of the removal of petrol subsidy.

He said the federal government would transfer N8,000 monthly to 12 million poor and low-income households for six months.

But on July 18, 2023, Tinubu ordered the immediate review of the proposed N8,000 conditional cash transfer.