By Jethro Ibileke
Over one million vulnerable residents of Edo state will from next month get ₦500 million monthly palliative to help cushion the biting effects of the removal of fuel subsidy and the rise in the prices of fuel.
The state Commissioner for Communication and Orientation, Mr Chris Nehikhare, who disclosed this shortly after the State Executive Council Meeting, said each beneficiary will get the sum of ₦200,000.
He added that the N500 million would be funded from the state’s Internally Generated Revenue (IGR).
Nehikhare assured that the state government had a reliable database of the poorest of the poor in the state, compiled between 2019 and 2021 in conjunction with the World Bank.
“What Exco resolved is that we should revalidate and review the data. With the E do State Residency Cards and the National Identity Number (NIN), we have an effective and efficient database that has enabled us to identify the very vulnerable in the state.
“When the review and the revalidation are completed, we shall begin to disburse the sum of N20,000 every month to the 314,000 households and the over 1,000,000,000 persons in the database.
“We need to emphasise that the N500 million is not from the federal allocation but from the IGR of Edo State. The people paid the money and that is why we are taking from it to cushion the effect of the economic hardship because there is no government without the people”, he added.