We’ll use AI to identify poor people in rural areas – FG

The Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Reduction, Prof. Nentawe Goshwe Yilwatda, has revealed that the Federal Government deployed Artificial Intelligence (AI) to identify extremely poor Nigerians, particularly in rural areas

Speaking in an interview on Arise News, Yilwatda said the move was part of efforts to ensure targeted disbursement of the Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) programme. He disclosed that over 5.8 million households—about 29 million individuals—have received support within six months of President Bola Tinubu’s directive mandating transfers only to verified account holders.

“AI was used to generate the list of poor people within rural communities based on their telephone numbers. It also helped identify an additional 6.5 million urban poor, all of whom were added to the national social register,” he said.

Yilwatda added that the updated social register now contains 19.7 million verified individuals across both urban and rural areas.

He also dismissed criticism that the N75,000 disbursed to beneficiaries was insufficient to start a business, noting that research conducted in partnership with the World Bank showed that 18% of recipients used the funds to launch small-scale enterprises.

“I’m from a rural community. When you give a rural farmer N75,000, it can make a real impact. Our research showed that 18% of recipients have already started their own businesses,” he said.

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