Feature/OPED
FG’s N330bn Poverty Payment Claim: Is It Fact or Fiction?
By Blaise Udunze
When the Federal Government announced with much fanfare that it had disbursed a colossal N330 billion in cash transfers to poor Nigerians, I paused, not in celebration, but in disbelief. Where, exactly, is the evidence of this money? In a country where hunger has become an uninvited guest at most dinner tables, and where 133 million citizens live in multidimensional poverty according to the National Bureau of Statistics, the announcement feels more like a script than reality.
This doubt is not mine alone. The Yoruba socio-cultural group, Ìgbìnmó Májékóbájé Ilé-Yorùbá, has openly challenged President Bola Tinubu to publish the names of the supposed beneficiaries of the N330 billion. The group alleged that those who benefited were largely members of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), dismissing the government’s claim as propaganda. In a statement signed by its convener, Olusola Badero, and home director, Princess Balogun, the union described the disbursement claim as deceitful and insensitive, especially at a time when citizens are groaning under unprecedented hardship. Since Tinubu’s first-day removal of the fuel subsidy, the group noted, millions have been plunged into deeper poverty, with small businesses collapsing and families reduced to begging for survival.
The irony becomes sharper when set against the stark numbers. As of 2024, the World Bank estimated that 56 percent of Nigerians, about 129 million people, live below the national poverty line. Poverty wears a harsher face in the rural areas, where three out of every four dwellers (75.5 percent) are poor, compared to 41.3 percent in urban centers. By multidimensional standards, 63 percent of Nigerians, or about 133 million people, are poor, with the North carrying the heaviest burden; 65 percent of the poor live there, compared to 35 percent in the South.
These figures also reveal a worsening trend. In 2018-2019, only 40.1 percent of Nigerians were below the poverty line. By 2024, that number had surged to 56 percent, translating into a leap from 79 million poor people in 2018 to 129 million in 2024. Poverty has not only spread wider, it has also deepened: more than 70 percent of rural Nigerians now live in poverty, and extreme poverty, measured at less than $2.15 a day, has risen sharply since the pre-COVID-19 era. Inflation, stagnant wages, population growth, and widening regional inequality have conspired to push millions further down the ladder.
And yet, against this grim backdrop, the government claims to have poured N330 billion into the hands of the poor. Last Wednesday in Abuja, the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Wale Edun, proudly declared that 8.1 million households had benefitted under the National Social Safety Net Programme (NASSP). He explained that the initiative was funded through an $800 million World Bank facility and implemented by the National Social Safety-Net Coordinating Office (NASSCO). According to him, payments were made digitally into bank accounts and mobile wallets to ensure transparency and prevent fraud.
On paper, it all sounds tidy and impressive. But let’s strip this claim bare. N330 billion is no small change. Spread even thinly, it could pay N50,000 each to over 6.6 million households, enough to put food on their tables, pay some school fees, or restart small businesses battered by inflation. If that kind of cash injection truly happened, Nigeria’s poorest communities would not be as invisible in relief as they are today. Prices in local markets would show a ripple of improved demand, children’s school attendance would rise, and testimonies of beneficiaries would ring louder than government press statements. But none of this is evident.
Instead, what do we see? Food prices are skyrocketing and hunger is rising, despite official inflation figures showing a sudden ease. Reports of hunger-related deaths are increasing in parts of the North. Numbers of unemployed youth continue to swell, hustling daily without hope of relief. Farmers are abandoning their farmlands due to insecurity, with no alternative income support reaching them. If 8.1 million households truly received cash relief, these conditions should at least have softened at the margins. But poverty, like a stubborn shadow, grows larger.
The federal government leans heavily on the “social register,” a database that supposedly identifies poor households. Yet, this register has long been criticized as flawed, exclusionary, and riddled with ghost entries. Millions of genuinely poor Nigerians in remote villages have no National Identification Number (NIN), no Bank Verification Number (BVN), and no digital trail. This makes it easy for fraudulent names to make the list while the truly vulnerable remain locked out. Without a credible and sustainable identification system, any talk of mass cash transfers is at best questionable and at worst deceptive. Who exactly received the funds? Where are they located? Why can’t the government publish a transparent breakdown of beneficiaries by state, ward, and household?
The truth is, impact speaks louder than announcements. If N330 billion genuinely coursed into the veins of Nigeria’s poorest, it would not need defending; it would be visible in fuller kitchens, busier markets, and brighter schools. Instead, what we have is silence from the supposed millions of beneficiaries, drowned out by the louder cries of hunger and despair from the streets. The government insists the money was paid, funded by the World Bank, and distributed digitally for transparency. But Nigerians have a right to ask: transparency to whom? Figures without faces, payments without proof, and programs without public validation are little more than statistical theater.
Until the Federal Government provides verifiable data, independent audits, accessible records, and open beneficiary lists, this N330 billion claim remains a story that stretches the limits of believability. Nigerians deserve not just figures thrown into the air, but proof that public funds are reaching those for whom they are intended. If not proven, the claim remains yet another mirage of relief in a nation where poverty continues to ridicule government pledges.
Blaise, a journalist and PR professional writes from Lagos, can be reached via: bl***********@***il.com
By Onah Ishioma Adaeze
As a beginner, choosing between stocks and forex for your investment goals in 2026 can feel overwhelming. Before investing your hard-earned money, it is important to understand how both markets work.
While both markets present investors with opportunities to grow their wealth, they also differ in terms of volatility, liquidity, market hours, and leverage. Stocks involve owning portions of a company, while forex has to do with trading a base currency against a quote currency.
In this article, we will be going through the basics of stocks and forex, pointing out their differences, and helping you decide which asset better suits your investment journey in 2026.
What is Stock Trading?
When it comes to stock trading, you are buying shares of a company, which makes you a shareholder of that company. As a shareholder, you may be entitled to receive dividends whenever the company decides to pay dividends.
As for those companies that do not pay dividends, there are other benefits a shareholder may enjoy, like being called upon to attend shareholder meetings and having voting rights on certain company matters.
On a global scale, over $100 trillion worth of shares are traded annually. Also, the rising popularity of AI companies and technological innovations continues to drive investor participation and market growth.
If you’re an investor looking to buy and hold capital assets, then stock trading is definitely for you, as it allows for short-term, medium-term and long-term investment goals.
When you buy shares of a company and the company performs well, your shares increase in value. Another benefit of stock trading is access to index funds and ETFs.
These funds consist of companies that are grouped under an index. They are carefully selected and monitored under the fund, sparing the investor the stress of actively tracking the fund.
They can be a way of building a long-term, diversified portfolio, and some of these funds may pay dividends.
What is Forex Trading?
Forex trading has to do with buying one currency and selling another. With a pair like USD/JPY, USD is the base currency being bought against JPY, which is the quote currency.
In order to execute a trade in the forex market, you have to analyse and make predictions based on price movement, as well as pay attention to what’s going on in the global news scene.
The forex market runs twenty-four hours every weekday, with over $9 trillion traded in the market every day. Being the largest financial market in the world, there is very high liquidity.
Forex trading involves buying one currency against another, making predictions based on price movements on the forex charts. Price moves based on the activities of large institutions like hedge funds, big banks, the government, etc.
The forex market runs 24 hours a day, every weekday, with global forex turnover reaching $9 trillion per day in the BIS 2025 survey. Being the largest financial market in the world, there is very high volatility and price fluctuations.
At the same time, there is high liquidity in the market, which means that currency pairs can easily be bought and sold without hassle. Highly liquid instruments that are traded regularly include: EUR/USD, USD/JPY, GBP/USD, and gold (XAU/USD).
As a retail trader, knowing when to enter and exit the market is important. As easy as it is to make profits from price fluctuations, it is also very easy to lose money if the market moves against you. This is why it is important to set stop losses and take profits. This helps manage your trading capital.
Major Differences Between Stocks and Forex
While investing in stocks and forex can yield great capital gains, there are lots of ways in which they differ.
As a beginner, stock trading provides opportunities for long-term investments, ensuring slow but consistent returns for wealth building. But if you are looking for an active, short-term style of investment, then forex trading is for you, as it allows you to enter and exit the market within a shorter time frame.
Which is Better in 2026?
Choosing an asset to invest in all boils down to personal preference. At the same time, if you are not averse to risk, nor opposed to asset diversification, then it’s okay to invest in both.
For beginner investors in 2026, stock trading is easier to understand and get into, especially because of mutual funds, index funds and ETFs. With those funds, you don’t have to be an expert to start investing. You can just buy a fund that suits your needs and hold it over a long period of time.
If you are an investor who enjoys technical analysis, highly volatile and liquid markets, as well as trading under short time frames, then forex trading is the right pick for you.
Conclusion
You do not need to put all your eggs in one basket. There are investors who invest in both stocks and forex simultaneously. When starting out, you can start investing in stocks while learning forex. Take calculated risks and do not invest above your means. Diversify your investments and remember, when starting out, you should prioritise acquiring knowledge over profits.
Onah Ishioma Adaeze is a finance writer who is passionate about simplifying complex concepts into easily digestible pieces. Her hobbies are reading and watching anime
By Owoloye Emmanuel
Every business starts with a problem. For us, that problem was hiding in plain sight.
Across organisations, we kept seeing HR professionals, payroll teams, and business leaders spend significant time navigating processes that should be simpler. Employee records sat across multiple systems, payroll processes required manual intervention, and routine workforce tasks often became more complicated than they needed to be.
As businesses grow, workforce operations naturally become more complex. Yet many organisations still rely on disconnected tools and workflows that create unnecessary friction for both employers and employees.
The consequence is more than operational inefficiency. HR teams spend valuable time managing systems instead of supporting people. Business leaders struggle to access timely workforce insights, while employees experience delays in processes that should be seamless.
These weren’t isolated challenges. They were recurring realities across workplaces, regardless of industry or size.
That observation led us to a simple question: what if workforce management could be easier?
What if HR, payroll, and workforce operations could work together within a single, connected experience?
That question became the foundation for 234 Solutions.
We are building 234 Solutions with a clear belief that workplace technology should reduce complexity, not add to it. Our goal is to help organisations spend less time navigating processes and more time focusing on productivity, growth, and people.
As we prepare for launch, our focus remains simple: building practical solutions for real workplace challenges and helping organisations create better experiences for the people who power them every day.
Owoloye Emmanuel is the founder of 234 Solutions
Scroll through social media today, and you will notice something interesting: everyone is either reacting to a series, quoting a movie line, or debating a character as though they personally know them. Beneath the memes and binge-watch culture, however, lies something deeper. Television remains one of the most powerful tools shaping how Africans see themselves, remember their history, and tell their own stories. In a continent as diverse and expressive as Africa, that matters more than ever.
TV as a Cultural Archive, Not Just Entertainment
Long before streaming algorithms began shaping our viewing habits, television was already preserving African identity. From Nollywood dramas that capture the rhythm of everyday Lagos life to documentaries exploring Maasai traditions and Ghanaian folklore, TV has served as a living archive of the continent’s stories.
It preserves more than entertainment; it preserves language, culture, humour, values, and shared experiences. Unlike fleeting social media content, television allows stories to unfold with depth, exploring the realities of family, tradition, ambition, and modern African life without reducing them to stereotypes. That is the power of TV: preserving not just stories, but perspective.
Why Representation on TV Still Matters
There is a subtle but important truth: if people do not see themselves on screen, they may begin to believe their stories are not worth telling. This is why African TV content is more than entertainment; it is affirmation.
Seeing a character who speaks like you, struggles like you, or celebrates like your community does something powerful. It validates identity and challenges outdated narratives that have historically defined Africa through external lenses.
This is where MultiChoice Group, through platforms such as DStv and GOtv, plays an important role. They do not simply broadcast content; they help distribute cultural memory at scale.
GOtv, DStv, and the Everyday African Viewer
Think about a typical evening in many African homes: the TV is on in the background, someone is laughing at a comedy show, another person is watching a local series, and someone else is catching up on the news. That shared viewing experience remains very real.
Through platforms such as DStv and GOtv, African households are exposed to a blend of local storytelling and global content. More importantly, they have helped amplify African-produced content by bringing Nollywood films, African reality shows, talk shows, and documentaries into mainstream rotation.
It is not just about access. It is about visibility.
A young filmmaker in Lagos today is more likely to believe their story matters because they have seen similar stories broadcast widely. A child in Accra grows up hearing familiar accents and seeing environments that look like their own on screen, not as exceptions, but as the norm.
TV Is Also Shaping Modern African Identity
African identity is not static; it is evolving. Television reflects that evolution in real time.
Today, audiences see:
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Young Africans balancing tradition and modern dating culture
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Stories tackling mental health in African households
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Fashion and music influences spreading through TV series
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Political satire shaping public conversation
Conversations that were once confined to homes are now being explored on screen, giving audiences the language to discuss issues that were previously unspoken.
In many ways, television is doing what oral tradition has always done: passing stories, values, humour, warnings, and history from one generation to the next. The difference is that today’s griots are writers, directors, and broadcasters.
The Future: From Watching to Owning Our Narratives
The next stage of African storytelling is not just about being seen; it is about ownership.
As more African creators produce content and platforms continue to invest in regional storytelling, television becomes more than a mirror. It becomes a tool for shaping how Africa is represented to itself and to the world.
While streaming continues to grow, television, particularly accessible platforms such as GOtv, remains one of the most effective ways to reach everyday audiences across different income levels and regions. After all, storytelling only matters if people can access it.
African stories are not new. They have always existed in families, on streets, in markets, in history books, and through oral traditions. What television has done, and continues to do, is give those stories a stage wide enough for millions to experience them at once.
The next time you watch a local series or documentary on DStv or GOtv, remember that you are not just being entertained. You are participating in the preservation of African identity itself.
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