Federal Government has commenced verification of individuals in the National Social Register (NSR) in communities across Lagos and South West states to ensure accurate data ahead of government’s poverty alleviation intervention.
Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation, Dr. Betta Edu, flagged off the exercise in Lagos State even as the exercise is expected to take place simultaneously across the country.
Promising that the government would get the data to make sure that persons targeted are reached, she said the exercise will last for three weeks.
“Federal Government is going to put money into the households in Nigerians to assist them in terms of their businesses, livelihood, education, to be able to pay fees for their children, improve access to social services, subsidise their daily transportation cost, give them spending power to provide for basic health care needs, job creation etc,” she said, among others.
Speaking shortly after she carried out door-to-door verification of the register at Makoko, a remote Lagos suburb, the minister said the Federal Government was ready to put money into the hands of Nigerians to assist them in their businesses, education of their children, livelihood, and job creation.
Describing the exercise as integrity tests, she said: “President Bola Tinubu wants sincerity in who gets the conditional cash transfers. He wants to truly touch the lives of the poor and change things for the better.”
She said persons captured would be checked to confirm if they deserve to be on the register or not.
“We are doing both community targeting and geographical targeting, we have seen that certain areas of Oko Agbon, Adogbo, Migbewhe, Makoko, Sogunro and Apollo villages have been covered by NSR, while certain areas have not been captured, we will capture them.
“The activities we will flag off here are being carried out across the country, working with states and communities. State governors will chair the steering committee at state while councils and community leaders will be involved to get NSR with integrity.
Coordinator, National Social Safety Nets Coordinating Office (NASSCO), Abdulaziz Danladi, said strengthening the social safety nets and social protection system in the country was a core strategy to help end extreme poverty and promote shared prosperity.
In a statement signed by the minister’s Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Rasheed Zubair, Danladi explained that the core mandate of NASSCO was to lay a strong foundation for rigorous and reliable evidence of poor and vulnerable households in Nigeria, which the minister is championing.
