Cross River government begins engagement to update Single Social Register

The Cross River Ministry of International Development Cooperation has begun the house-to-house engagement of residents in the villages to update the Single Social Register.

The engagement, a directive of Gov. Ben Ayade to ease the distribution of relief materials to the poor and vulnerable people in the state was in line with the Federal Government’s policy.

The event started in Mekenge village in Calabar Municipality Area Council, and was led by the Commissioner for International Development Cooperation, Dr Inyang Asibong who monitored the exercise.

Asibong also used the opportunity to examine the verification exercise of the Youth Employment and Social Support Operation (YESSO) programme in the community.

According to her, the exercise serves a dual purpose of updating the current register with details of households under the poverty threshold and also follow-up on those previously registered to ensure that previous interventions have been judiciously utised.

“Today we are here in Mekenge Community of Calabar Municipal Council to carry out verification to update the Single Register for the Poor and Vulnerable Households (SRPVH).

“We also seize this opportunity to further sensitise the community on the deadly COVID-19 pandemic and the need for them to be very proactive in following preventive measures of the state government,” she said.

Similarly, the Commissioner for Culture and Tourism, Mr Eric Anderson who was part of the team urged the community to support the state government as it was working to ensure that the virus does not spread into the state.

Some of the potential beneficiaries who were identified based on the index verifications, expressed delight for being chosen by their community for inclusion in the register as they have been living in extreme poverty before the intervention.

It would be recalled that the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) put the Poverty index in the country at 40 per cent with more than 82 million Nigerians living below the poverty line, 36 per cent in Cross River.