Sadiya Umar Farouq, Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, in Nigeria said the, the Federal government immediately terminated the contracts of two Payment Service Providers (PSP) for failure to meet up with the contractual agreement to commence Conditional Cash Transfer to beneficiaries in four states.
The Payment Service Providers (PSP) whose contracts were terminated were, Data Mining Company and Innovative NIPOST.
“The affected states are Bayelsa and Akwa Ibom in the South-South; Abia in the South East and Zamfara, in the North West.
Sadiya Umar Farouq, said “The immediate termination of the contract would be with the guidance of the World Bank, and a new procurement process launched using World Bank procurement guidelines to ensure that payment commences in the affected states on or before April 28, 2020,”
“The Federal Government will not allow contractors to derail the Conditional cash transfers to the poor and the vulnerable,”
Sadiya Umar Farouq, also said that the Federal Government cannot accept delays in the current payment round of N20,000 stipends to beneficiaries in poor and vulnerable households under any excuses in the four states or any other states of the federation.
The President Muhammadu Buhari, instructed the ministry on Monday to continue the distribution of food and cash transfers to households as efforts to tackle COVID-19.