Sadiya Farouk, minister of humanitarian affairs, disaster management and social development, says the ministry has started cash transfer to poorest households in the country to minimise the effect of the deadly Covid-19.

Farouk stated this on Monday during a press briefing by the presidential task force on the novel coronavirus pandemic in Abuja.

Currently, the number of confirmed cases in Nigeria stands at 131 with two deaths recorded.

Farouk said the ministry has commenced advance payment of conditional cash transfer to the poorest households in the country.

She said the vulnerable group will also be expanded to consider more persons during the infection period.

She said, “In Mr President’s speech, paragraph 54, he directed that the conditional cash transfer should be given in advance of two months. This we have also done.

“We have directed immediate cash transfer to the poorest and most vulnerable households in the country.

“Because of this COVID-19, the vulnerable groups have to expand, because we are aware that there are people who live on daily wage, so we are also going to look at those groups of people to see how we can get this food relief intervention to them in this period.”

The minister also disclosed that the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) has deployed trucks of relief materials to states affected by Covid-19.