The Federal Government of Nigeria says it is relying on AI to generate information on poor people across the communities in the country.
NATIONAL POST reports that this was disclosed by the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Reduction, Prof. Nentawe Goshwe Yilwatda.
Speaking to Arise TV, Yilwatda said 5.8 million Nigerians had benefited from the Federal Government Conditional Cash Transfer, CCT within six months of President Bola Tinubu's directive that the money be transferred to only verified accounts.
He also faulted those who feel the N75,000 being sent to poor Nigerians is inadequate, noting that several persons had used theirs to set up a business.
The Minister said, "I’m from a rural community. If you meet a rural farmer and give him N75 thousand, because we also did research by the World Bank, we discovered that up to 18% of the people who received this amount were able to start a business of their own.
"Within six months, under President Tinubu's directives that we should use only verified account numbers to make transfers to people, we have reached roughly 5.8 million households, totaling nearly 29 million people who have benefited from this payment.
"AI was used to generate the list of people who are poor within the community using their varied telephone numbers, and AI was also used to generate an additional 6.5 million who are urban poor, which was then added to the social register.”