Minister of humanitarian affairs, disaster management and social development, Sadiya Farouq, says the Federal government has begun cash transfer to the poorest households in the country to cushion the economic impact of the Coronavirus pandemic.

Farouk announced this at a press conference in Abuja. She said her ministry has commenced advance payment of conditional cash transfer to the poorest households in the country. She however did not disclose the amount of cash that is being transfered to the poor.

“In Mr. President’s speech, paragraph 54, he directed that the conditional cash transfer should be given in advance of two months. This we have also done. We have directed immediate cash transfer to the poorest and most vulnerable households in the country.

“Because of this COVID-19, the vulnerable groups have to be expanded, because we are aware that there are people who live on daily wage, so we are also going to look at those groups of people to see how we can get this food relief intervention to them in this period.” she said

Lagos and Abuja are currently on lockdown as part of measures to contain the spread of Coronavirus. As of this morning, Nigeria has 131 confirmed cases of Coronavirus.