The federal government has announced plans to include families of Nigerian fallen soldiers and members of the Nigerian Legion among the beneficiaries of its Conditional Cash Transfer Scheme.

Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation Betta Edu disclosed this on Thursday in a statement by her media aide Rasheed Zubair.

The minister was speaking when she visited the Ministry of Defence in Abuja.

Ms Edu said the move was part of the desire of President Bola Tinubu’s administration to support the vulnerable ex-servicemen, widows and the dependants of fallen heroes.

Therefore, she sought accurate data on the affected families of ex-servicemen to include them during the ongoing verification of the national social register.

Ms Edu said further that the president had directed that the national social register be expanded to include those vulnerable groups to enable them to benefit from the social intervention programmes.

”This is in line with Mr President’s agenda, and I am here to inform you that the programme has been expanded to accommodate retirees of this ministry, especially deceased families. Government intends to support their wives to start small businesses that will help their children stay in school and provide basic health care,” she said.

She also announced the creation of the Government Enterprise Empowerment Programme (GEEP), which aims to help small-scale businesses in the country.

Ms Edu, therefore, appealed to the ministry to provide adequate security cover for humanitarian workers while doing their work in the fields.

Defence minister Badaru Abubakar commended the humanitarian ministry’s efforts to support the fallen heroes’ families. Mr Abubakar pledged to strengthen collaboration with the humanitarian ministry to alleviate the plight of Nigerians.

”Including the retirees in the welfare scheme will go a long way to renew the hope of retired officers and their families and motivate the working officers to secure the Nigerian territorial integrity,” Mr Abubakar said.

The chairman of Nigerian Legion, retired Maj.-Gen. Abdulmalik Jubril expressed gratitude to the federal government for including the retirees in the CCT scheme.

Mr Jubril said, “The Nigerian Legion is the last hope for retired officers, which keeps increasing by the day. We need medical care and a decent livelihood for our members. This organ of the military, that is, the army, air force and navy retirees, needs government support.”

(NAN)