• First Lady says initiative will provide recovery pathways

The Federal Government has launched a $1 billion Household Prosperity and Empowerment Social Protection Project (HOPE-SP), with a mandate to move vulnerable Nigerian households from dependence on temporary palliatives to sustainable economic empowerment and self-reliance.

Unveiled in Abuja yesterday, the initiative formed part of a broader overhaul of the country’s humanitarian and poverty-reduction architecture designed to improve coordination, strengthen social protection and ensure that vulnerable households are supported until they can graduate from poverty.

Also unveiled were the One Humanitarian One Poverty Response System (OHOPRS), Emergency Cash Transfer Programme, the Federal Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Reduction Ministerial Blueprint and the Humanity First Magazine.

The First Lady, Oluremi Tinubu, in her keynote address titled “From Palliatives to Pathways,” said the initiatives marked a significant shift from short-term relief to interventions capable of building resilience, economic independence and dignity among vulnerable Nigerians.

According to her, the programmes are particularly important as the economic reforms of the President Bola Tinubu administration continue to take effect, noting that many families still require support given the size of the country’s population and the economic pressures facing households.

She disclosed that the Tinubu administration was implementing far-reaching reforms to strengthen the economy, lay a solid foundation for sustainable growth and shared prosperity.

Mrs Tinubu described HOPE-SP as a major intervention to improve the identification of vulnerable households and tailor assistance to their specific needs.

She explained that rather than providing relief without a clear exit strategy, the programme would combine immediate stabilisation support with interventions designed to place beneficiaries on a pathway to recovery, empowerment and self-reliance.

She further stated that the OHOPRS would establish a coordinated national mechanism for humanitarian response, social protection and poverty reduction, while eliminating duplication among government interventions.

Also, unified national registries would enable the government to identify vulnerable households, coordinate support and track their progress towards economic inclusion and prosperity, she added.

Similarly, the first lady said the Emergency Cash Transfer Programme would provide rapid financial support to households hit by economic shocks, while the ministerial blueprint would translate the humanitarian and poverty-reduction priorities of the Renewed Hope Agenda into measurable actions.

She also described the Humanity First Magazine as an important component of the initiative because it would document the experiences of Nigerians whose lives had been transformed through government interventions.

For his part, Doro said the launch was the beginning of a new national architecture for humanitarian intervention and social protection, with the government moving away from reactive palliatives towards proactive empowerment.

According to him, the objective is to move “from reactive relief to anticipatory social protection,” and from managing poverty to reducing and ultimately ending it.

He identified fragmentation among the existing social intervention programmes as a major challenge undermining the effectiveness of poverty-reduction efforts, stating, however, that the existing databases would be integrated into a unified platform anchored on the National Social Register, which he said currently contains about 20 million households.

Consequently, beneficiaries would be tracked from identification and intervention through an exit mechanism and eventual transition into a growth register, with a digital dashboard providing government with visibility across interventions.

Also speaking, the Minister of Budget and Economic Planning, Atiku Bagudu, stressed that the administration’s ambition to build a $1 trillion economy by 2030 must be matched by deliberate measures to ensure that economic opportunities and prosperity reach Nigerians at the grassroots.