Subsidy Removal: Poor households to earn N20,000 monthly in Edo, says commissioner

• The initiative aims to ease the impact of petroleum subsidy removal, as disclosed by the Commissioner for Information and Communication, Chris Nehikhare
• The announcement followed a state executive meeting in Benin, where Nehikhare addressed journalists
  

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The Edo State government announced its plan to initiate a monthly disbursement of N20,000 as palliative support to financially disadvantaged households in the state, starting from September. This initiative aims to alleviate the impact of the removal of petroleum subsidy.

Chris Nehikhare, the Commissioner for Information and Communication, revealed this development while addressing journalists shortly after the state executive meeting held in Benin.

Nehikhare highlighted that the funds for this assistance would be sourced from the N500 million allocation pledged by the governor to the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) during their protest.

He emphasized that the financial allocation will be drawn from the state’s internally generated revenue (IGR), with beneficiaries being selected from a meticulously maintained database of the most economically vulnerable households in the state.

Nehikhare underlined that the ongoing revalidation of the database of financially disadvantaged households is currently in progress.

“Following the protest by NLC, the governor committed to NLC that the state government will provide N500 million monthly from the IGR for the poorest of the poor in the state.

“I am pleased to report that after that commitment, the state database of the poor is being revised, reviewed and revalidated because the register was compiled between 2019 and 2021.

“What EXCO resolved is that we should revalidate and review the data to add the Edo State Residency Cards and the National Identity Number (NIN) to the database.

“When the review and the revalidation is completed, we shall begin to disburse the sum of N20,000 every month to the over 314,000 households with about One million persons captured in the database.

“We need to emphasise that the N500 million is not from the federal allocation but from the IGR of Edo State,” Mr Nehikhare said.

On security, Mr Nehikhare also disclosed that the state government was currently training about 1,500 volunteers into the state’s vigilante group to strengthen security and make Edo the safest state in Nigeria.