President Muhammadu Buhari has come out to say the present social register of the palliative measures amid the coronavirus outbreak will be expanded from 2.6 million households to 3.6 million households in the next two weeks.
Buhari revealed that no nation can actually afford the full impact of a sustained restriction of movement on its economy.
According to him, he understands the great difficulties experienced especially by those who earn a daily wage such as traders, day-workers, artisans and manual workers, but he needs the cooperation of the citizens during the lockdown period.
He added that despite the hardship, he cannot change the restrictions right now with the increasing cases in the country.
His words, “For this group, their sustenance depends on their ability to go out. Their livelihoods depend on them mingling with others and about seeking work. But despite these realities, we must not change the restrictions.
“In the past two weeks, we announced palliative measures such as food distribution, cash transfers and loans repayment waivers to ease the pains of our restrictive policies during this difficult time. These palliatives will be sustained.
“I have also directed that the current social register be expanded from 2.6 million households to 3.6 million households in the next two weeks.
“This means we will support an additional one million homes with our social investment programs. A technical committee is working on this and will submit a report to me by the end of this week”.
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