Tinubu’s Minister Bernard Doro Gave Out N20,000 Per Household Per Year and Calls It Poverty Reduction

The Federal Government has spent more than N600 billion on cash transfers to vulnerable Nigerians over the past three years, reaching about 10 million households, Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Reduction Bernard Doro has said. That breaks down to roughly N20,000 per household per year, an amount that has left many Nigerians questioning how such a figure can meaningfully reduce poverty in a country where inflation has soared and the cost of living has spiralled out of control.

During an interview on Channels Television’s Politics Today, Doro was asked a simple question: how many people has the government actually lifted out of poverty? He could not answer. The minister acknowledged that the government has not yet established through updated data exactly how many beneficiaries have been lifted out of poverty as a result of the intervention. He explained that the poverty data currently being used is based on the 2022 multidimensional poverty assessment, and that a review of the figures is being commissioned. “I have not given you any figure,” Doro said. “I won’t give you a figure if we have not already reviewed what is going on. We will do this review and once we do that review, we will be able to share the numbers.”

The maths is simple. N600 billion divided among 10 million households over three years works out to about N20,000 per household per year. That is less than N1,700 a month, barely enough to buy a few kilograms of rice in today’s Nigeria. Minister Doro defended the figure, saying: “N25,000 can look very small to elites, but not to the poorest of the poor.” But for a family of four or five trying to survive in a country where food inflation has hit 20.31 per cent and the naira has lost more than 70 per cent of its value, N20,000 a year is not a lifeline, it is an insult.

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While the government celebrates N600 billion in cash transfers, independent data shows that poverty has actually increased under President Bola Tinubu’s watch. According to the World Bank, Nigeria’s poverty rate rose from 56 per cent in 2023 to 61 per cent in 2024, before climbing to 63 per cent in 2025. That means more than 140 million Nigerians are now living below the poverty line. The government came to power with promises of Renewed Hope, but three years later, the poverty rate has climbed, not fallen.

Doro was appointed by President Tinubu in October 2025 to replace Professor Nentawe Yilwatda. He holds degrees in Pharmacy and Law, as well as an MBA focusing on IT-driven business strategy. But his credentials have not translated into results. The minister’s inability to answer the question of how many people have been lifted out of poverty speaks volumes. The government has no data on whether its cash transfers are working. It has no idea whether N20,000 a year is enough to lift anyone out of poverty. It has no plan to measure its own success or failure. And yet it continues to celebrate N600 billion in handouts while millions of Nigerians sink deeper into destitution.

This is not poverty reduction. This is a performance. The government wants credit for spending money, but it cannot say what that money has achieved. It wants to appear compassionate, but it cannot show results. It wants Nigerians to believe that N20,000 a year is a lifeline, but every Nigerian knows it is not. The question is not whether the government has spent N600 billion. The question is why, after three years, it still cannot tell us how many people it has actually helped.

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