No fewer than three million poor and vulnerable households have benefitted from the $800m palliative loan disbursed by the World Bank to cushion the effect of recent government policies, such as the fuel subsidy removal.

Of these beneficiaries, 700 thousand households were from rural areas and about 2.5 million households were from urban areas.

The World Bank revealed this in its restructuring paper on how to bolster its social safety net programmes amidst rising inflation and economic challenges.

This was as the Federal Government submitted a request to extend the period of the closing date by 18 months from June 30, 2024, to December 31, 2025.

According to the document obtained from its website on Wednesday, the extension seeks to realign project timelines and enhance the efficacy of the National Social Safety Net Program-Scale Up, adding that 1,652 urban wards had been covered through the targeting system developed under the project.

The document read in part, “Since its start, about 30 million beneficiaries have been covered by social safety net programs, and about three million poor and vulnerable households have received shock responsive cash transfers as of May 2024. Of these beneficiaries, 700 thousand households were from rural areas and about 2.5 million households were from urban areas. 1,652 urban wards have been covered through the targeting system developed under the project.”

it added that a planned digital payment delivery mechanism had been put in place, using straight-through processing to deliver transfers directly to beneficiaries’ accounts or wallets while the National Social Register is being integrated with the National Identification Number to further strengthen the targeting system.

The NASSP-SU project, initiated to provide shock-responsive safety net support to Nigeria’s poor and vulnerable, was approved on December 16, 2021, and became effective on January 30, 2023.

With this loan, the Federal Government plans to run a monthly cash transfer programme for poor and vulnerable Nigerians, who have been hit hard by recent policies, such as the fuel subsidy removal.

But it was abruptly stopped following a probe of alleged malfeasance in the management of the scheme by the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation.