Eric Patrick
The Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Reduction, Nentawe Goshwe Yilwatda, has disclosed that the Federal Government is leveraging Artificial Intelligence (AI) to identify extremely poor Nigerians, particularly in rural areas.
Speaking in an interview with Arise News, Yilwatda revealed that over 5.8 million Nigerians have benefited from the Federal Government’s Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) programme within six months. This intervention followed President Bola Tinubu’s directive that disbursements be made strictly to verified bank accounts.
He added that, contrary to criticism, the N75,000 grant issued to recipients has helped many launch small-scale businesses.
“I’m from a rural community. If you meet a rural farmer and give him N75,000, it goes a long way,” the minister explained. “Our World Bank research showed that about 18% of beneficiaries were able to start their own businesses.”
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According to him, the initiative has reached approximately 5.8 million households — nearly 29 million individuals — across the country.
Yilwatda further noted that AI technology was deployed to identify those most in need by analysing telephone data and socioeconomic indicators. “AI helped us generate the list of the poor in rural communities and also identified an additional 6.5 million urban poor, who were added to the national social register,” he said.
The minister said the FG remains committed to using technology and data-driven tools to ensure transparency and impact in poverty reduction efforts.