A N50,000 monthly relief payment sounds like welcome news for struggling Nigerian families, but the Federal Government's new digital scheme may not reach the people who need it most.
The core problem is access. Many of Nigeria's poorest households still lack National Identification Numbers, and not everyone has a phone capable of receiving digital payments. When a relief programme is built on digital infrastructure, those two gaps alone can quietly shut out the most vulnerable before the process even begins.
The source material is limited in detail, but the concern is clear enough: a well-meaning policy can still fall short if the enrollment conditions are harder to meet than the benefit is to spend. Getting the money into the right hands requires closing the NIN and phone access gaps first, not after the scheme is already running.
Whether the government has a plan to bridge those gaps before payments roll out is the question every Nigerian family waiting on relief deserves an answer to.
Originally published by BusinessDay.