A political economist, Prof Kingsley Moghalu, says the Federal Government will require about N2 trillion to provide financial assistance to poor families during COVID-19 total shutdown.
Moghalu, also a former Deputy Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), in a statement issued on Sunday in Awka, said many low-income households might lose their sources of income as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
He said the N50 billion fund established by the CBN for families and small businesses would not be adequate to address the Covid-19 crisis if and when it escalated.
“If a sum of N20,000 were to be made available for every impoverished family to stock up food and supplies for a month in a Covid-19 total shutdown scenario, this would require an intervention of N2 trillion.”