Over 8.1m households benefit ₦300bn under Conditional Cash Transfer scheme
No fewer than 21,000 Nigerians affected by flood disasters across the country are to benefit from a Federal Government interest-free loan totalling ₦6.3 billion.
The Minister of State for Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Reduction, Yusuf Sununu, disclosed this on Monday at a roundtable held in Abuja to mark the 2025 International Day for Disaster Risk Reduction.
The event had in attendance Vice President Kashim Shettima, Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives Benjamin Kalu, Governor Dauda Lawal of Zamfara State, lawmakers, and international development partners, among others.
Sununu said the initiative is part of efforts by the Tinubu administration to mitigate the impact of flooding on households and cushion its effect on food security.
According to him, each of the 21,000 beneficiaries will receive an interest-free and collateral-free loan of ₦300,000 to help them recover and rebuild their livelihoods.
“We are planning, together with both national and state levels, to improve on our flood mitigating effect by dolling out, in the next few weeks, to 21,000 Nigerians, free interest and collateral-free loans of over ₦300,000 each.
This is to address the crisis in farming and mitigate the impact of flooding in Nigeria,” the minister said.
Sununu also revealed that over 8.1 million households across Nigeria have benefited from the Federal Government’s Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) programme, receiving a total of over ₦300 billion through the National Social Investment Agency.
“Under the Hope Agenda of Mr. President, the Ministry has, through the National Social Investment Agency, improved the resilience of local communities. So far, over 8.1 million households have been reached with more than ₦300 billion, enhancing their health, education, and capacity for self-reliance,” he added.
The minister further disclosed that the government is collaborating with the Federal Ministry of Agriculture to empower internally displaced persons (IDPs) by creating a market structure for their farm produce.
“We have initiated a programme in collaboration with the Ministry of Agriculture to enhance food security among IDPs.The formula allocates 30 per cent of the produce to the displaced persons, while the government off-takes 70 per cent and pays the participants their monetary share,” he explained.
Earlier in her remarks, the Director General of the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), Zubaida Umar, said Nigeria, like many other nations, continues to experience increasing frequency and intensity of disasters driven by climate change, conflicts, pandemics, and technological risks.
She noted that these challenges are testing the limits of traditional emergency response systems and require a more proactive and well-financed disaster risk management framework.
Umar also announced the official launch of two major policy instruments — the NEMA Strategic Plan (2025–2029) and the National Disaster Risk Reduction Strategy (2025–2030) — which she said would guide national resilience and disaster preparedness efforts in the coming years.
“Resilience must be mainstreamed across all sectors — from agriculture, water resources, energy, and infrastructure to finance, education, and health. We are developing a National Risk Monitoring and Information Platform that will enable early warning, vulnerability mapping, and risk-informed investment decisions,” she said.
The NEMA boss also emphasized the need for innovative financing mechanisms such as catastrophe bonds, insurance pools, and climate funds to sustain disaster risk reduction efforts nationwide.
