Maryam Uwais, Special Adviser to President Muhammadu Buhari on Social Investment, said the government cannot publish names of beneficiaries who received “cash transfer” due to COVID-19.

Speaking on Channels TV -Sunrise Daily, Thursday, 9th April, Maryam Uwais said the government cannot publish beneficiaries names because they dont want to be regarded as poor.

“Those who benefit from the conditional cash transfer of the Federal Government as palliative to cushion the effects of the lockdown caused by the deadly Coronavirus don’t want to be addressed as poor people that is why we can’t publish their names.”

Mrs Maryam Uwais later said that this people don’t exist where normal people exist and this is the reason they didn’t go with any form of press.

“Also, the beneficiaries of the Federal Government’s gesture are invisible and dwell where the conventional society cannot see them and carrying journalists along to investigate the authenticity of the payments to the target persons will be cost implicative to the scheme because the funds at hand can’t pay for extra burden as we are only managing what we have”.

Meanwhile, all these explanation is coming after Sadiya Farouk, Nigeria Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, at Abuja, said President Muhammadu Buhari’s led government had commenced the commenced cash transfer to poorest households in the country to cushion effect of the coronavirus pandemic.

Sadiya Farouk said the ministry has commenced advance payment of conditional cash transfer to the poorest households in the country.

She said the vulnerable group will also be expanded to consider more persons during the infection period.

“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,” she said.

“Because of this COVID-19, the vulnerable groups have to 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.”

The minister said the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) has deployed trucks of relief materials to states affected by the coronavirus pandemic.