The World Bank says Nigeria’s cash-based social protection programmes reached 67.19 million people and 10.44 million households by August 2026, while unresolved audit and verification concerns continue to raise questions about the traceability of some government cash payments.

The latest implementation report on Nigeria’s National Social Safety Net Programme-Scale Up shows that coverage has expanded sharply, with the number of people reached rising from 60.09 million in May to 67.19 million in August.

According to a report by ThisDay Newspaper, the figure has already surpassed the programme’s June 2027 target of 56 million people.

The World Bank said 10.43 million poor and vulnerable households had received economic shock-responsive cash transfers, with more than 7.1 million households receiving all three tranches after biometric verification using their National Identification Numbers (NINs) or Bank Verification Numbers (BVNs).

The report provides fresh data on the scale of the programme, but it comes amid continuing scrutiny over the ability to independently reconcile beneficiaries, payment records and government disbursements.

15.8 million NINs verified

According to the World Bank, more than 15.8 million NINs had been verified in Nigeria’s social registry by August 2026.

The exercise included visits to 12.9 million households in collaboration with the National Identity Management Commission.

Of the households covered by the verification exercise, 10.95 million had been verified using NINs and BVNs and integrated into the National Benefit Delivery Management System.

The World Bank said the expansion of the NIN verification drive had helped accelerate the distribution of cash transfers.

“The economic shock-responsive cash transfers have reached 10.43 million poor and vulnerable households selected from the social registry,” the report said.

It added that more than 7.1 million households had received all three tranches following biometric verification.

Audit questions remain

Despite the progress reported by the World Bank, questions about the documentation and reconciliation of earlier cash transfers remain.

The Auditor-General for the Federation’s 2024 annual report on non-compliance and internal control weaknesses had questioned documentation supporting N33.751 billion in electronic transfers to 3,295,207 households and beneficiaries across 35 states in 2023.

The audit report said payment vouchers did not contain complete beneficiary information and that a Remita statement needed to reconcile recipients with names on the National Social Register and National Beneficiary Register was not made available for examination.

The auditors therefore said they could not authenticate the payments or establish whether the beneficiaries who received the funds were genuine.

The audit findings concern earlier payments and do not, by themselves, establish that the beneficiaries reported in the latest World Bank assessment are invalid. They do, however, underscore the importance of maintaining a verifiable payment trail as the programme expands.

Questions over beneficiary figures

The scale of the programme has also attracted political scrutiny.

Former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar recently questioned the difference between a 15 million-household figure announced by the Presidency in July and a subsequent government statement that more than 10 million households had received cash transfers.

He also questioned the government’s disclosure that more than ₦600 billion had been disbursed, calling for a verifiable record showing households paid, the number of tranches received, failed transactions and reversals.

Separately, the suspension of former Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation Minister Betta Edu followed reports concerning an alleged authorisation of a ₦585 million transfer to a private account for payments to vulnerable groups. The episode became part of wider scrutiny of the administration of social intervention funds.

Women account for majority of primary beneficiaries

The World Bank report showed that women accounted for 39.77 million of the 67.19 million people covered by cash-based interventions.

Youths accounted for 12.32 million.

Women represented 57.6 per cent of primary beneficiaries, exceeding the programme’s target of 45 per cent.

The report also said 81 per cent of beneficiary households were drawn from the bottom six income deciles.

The programme recorded a beneficiary satisfaction rate of 87.7 per cent, while 98.9 per cent of beneficiary households received payments within 10 days of their scheduled payment dates.

The World Bank said transfers were made directly into beneficiary-owned digital accounts supported by biometric identification.

Social registry still being upgraded

Despite progress in beneficiary identification, the World Bank said the modernised social registry was not yet operational as of August 2026.

It is expected to become operational by June 2027.

The lender retained the overall implementation risk rating for the programme at “substantial.” Political and governance, macroeconomic, technical-design and fiduciary risks were also rated substantial.

The risk assessment highlights the operational and governance challenges involved in managing a nationwide social protection system covering tens of millions of Nigerians.

World Bank revises financing to $776.42bn

The World Bank also disclosed that the programme’s original $800 million International Development Association (IDA) financing facility had been revised to $776.42 million.

Of that amount, $762.43 million, representing 98.2 per cent of the revised financing, had been disbursed as of August 2026.

The latest figures point to a significant expansion of Nigeria’s social protection system, but the programme’s longer-term credibility will depend not only on the number of beneficiaries reached but also on the quality of beneficiary verification, payment reconciliation and public accountability.

For policymakers and development financiers, the central test is increasingly whether the rapidly expanding cash-transfer system can maintain a transparent and independently auditable trail from the social registry to the individual recipie