The Federal Government on Monday announced its decision to hand over food relief items to governors for onward distribution to residents in their respective states.
The Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, Sadiya Umar-Farouk, stated this at the daily briefing on COVID-19 by the presidential task force in Abuja.
She said, “Going forward, we have decided to hand over this food relief to the state governors for onward redistribution to their citizens, the poor and vulnerable in society.
“In fact, I have started that. I was in Lagos and Ogun states last week and I handed over trucks of food relief to the governors.
“So far, we have reached out to the three affected places that have been locked down by the Federal Government, the two states plus the FCT. Also, we have deployed some food relief in two south-eastern states of Imo and Ebonyi.”
Umar-Farouq said the disbursement of cash by her ministry was ongoing but stressed that the process of digitalising the scheme was cumbersome.
“However, with transparency and accountability, the ministry has already begun the digitalisation of this process.
“We have four pilot states that are on digital payroll so far and we are continuing with that. We hope that in our next month payment, we will be able to, at least, have all the states adopt digital payment,” the minister said.
She further noted that the government was working on expanding the register of beneficiaries, adding that the process had started.