The Federal Government says more than 34 million vulnerable Nigerians have so far benefited from its conditional cash transfer programme, with plans underway to expand the initiative to reach 50 million people before the end of the year.
The Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Reduction, Dr Bernard Doro, disclosed this on Thursday in Calabar, Cross River State, at the inaugural meeting of the National Council on Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Reduction. He described the programme as a central pillar of the Tinubu administration’s strategy to cushion economic hardship and lift millions out of poverty.
According to the minister, the scale of the cash transfer intervention demonstrates the government’s commitment to inclusive social protection and structured support for the most vulnerable Nigerians. He said poverty reduction remains a priority of the current administration, noting that targeted cash assistance has become one of the most effective tools for stabilising households amid rising living costs.
Dr Doro explained that the newly established National Council on Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Reduction was created to address long-standing gaps in coordination among humanitarian agencies at all levels of government. He warned that disjointed efforts and isolated programmes could not deliver sustainable results in a country facing complex humanitarian and economic challenges.
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Speaking on the council’s outlook for 2026, the minister stressed that closer collaboration between the federal government, states, development partners, and non-state actors was essential to achieving meaningful impact. He said Nigeria’s humanitarian burden was too large for any single institution or tier of government to manage alone.
“No single level of government can tackle Nigeria’s humanitarian challenges independently. Only through teamwork and shared responsibility can we restore hope and enhance lives,” Doro said.
Also addressing the meeting, the Minister of State for Humanitarian Affairs, Dr Tanko Sununu, said shifting global realities had made cooperation and innovation more critical than ever in humanitarian response. He urged stakeholders to adopt flexible and data-driven approaches in designing interventions that respond to evolving social and economic pressures.
The council meeting featured robust deliberations, with stakeholders submitting 99 memoranda on various aspects of poverty reduction and humanitarian coordination. Of these, 37 were approved, 19 were merged, 25 were stepped down, while others were not recommended for further action.
One of the key proposals came from the Development Research and Projects Centre, which called on the Federal Government to establish a unified national system for monitoring and evaluating poverty reduction and humanitarian programmes across the country. The centre argued that a central framework would improve coordination, ensure accountability, and provide clearer evidence of impact on vulnerable populations.
The Executive Director of the centre, Dr Judith-Ann Walker, said the absence of a harmonised monitoring structure had made it difficult to accurately assess outcomes, particularly due to wide variations in state-level programmes. She noted that a national framework would strengthen data collection and help policymakers identify what works and what does not.
Meanwhile, Cross River State Governor, Senator Bassey Otu, represented by his deputy, Peter Odey, commended the Federal Government for choosing Calabar as host city for the inaugural council meeting. He pledged the state’s continued support for federal poverty reduction and humanitarian initiatives, with particular attention to border communities and displaced persons affected by cross-border movements from neighbouring Cameroon.
The meeting marked a significant step in the Federal Government’s effort to align humanitarian response with long-term poverty reduction goals, as it seeks to scale up interventions and deliver measurable outcomes for millions of Nigerians.
