The Kaduna State governor, Uba Sani, has faulted the current database of ‘poor Nigerians’ likely to benefit from the proposed cash transfer.
The governor also said the Nigerian government’s cash transfer policy was a big scam and that he never supported it.
The President Bola Tinubu administration had proposed a cash transfer of N8,000 each to 12 million of the most indigent Nigerians as palliative for the removal of subsidy on petrol.
The cash transfer was proposed to last for six months.
Mr Tinubu announced the removal of fuel subsidy during his inauguration speech on 29 May.
A litre of petrol sold for N185 before Mr Tinubu’s inauguration now sells for between N617 to N640.
In an interview with Arise TV on Friday, Mr Sani said, “My position has always been that, at this critical time, cash transfer should not be something we should bring up. I think that cash transfer, in my opinion, is a scam. Completely, it’s a scam. I can be very certain about that, because who are you transferring the money to?
“You should know that there is no accurate database of those that will benefit from the programme; many people are not captured in the current list.
“Let me give an example, go and check the current statistics. I was the Chairman, the Committee of Banking for four years in Nigeria; I oversight Central Bank, I oversight all the commercial sectors of our economy for the last four years, and I looked at the statistics. So who are you transferring the money to?”
He gave an example of his state, Kaduna, where he said many local governments were not correctly captured in the most recent database.
“Local governments like Birnin Gwari, Giwa, Part of Igabi, and even Some parts of Kaduna North and Zangon Kataf, they have been troubled by banditry; you could not access the people. So how are they going to benefit from the cash transfer?” he asked.
” Let’s put more money to ensure that we open accounts for them, get them involved; if we don’t do that, no matter what we do, however, you do it, money will go to the wrong people, that’s the fact.
“For me, here I can say the cash transfer is a scam, completely is a scam. Who are you transferring the money to? About 70-75 per cent of the rural population in the North-west are financially excluded completely. They are vulnerable; they don’t even have a bank account.
“Someone cannot be sitting in the capital of a state and be committing fraud and scam and be taking the money.
The governor also denied that the federal government gave some money to state governments.
“Since I became governor, I did not receive money from anybody. So the billions people are saying, I don’t know where they got their information from.”
