The Federal Government has registered 26.8 million vulnerable Nigerians drawn from 7,892 wards across the country into the National Social Register, (NSR) as of the end of January 2021.
The Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, Sadiya Umar Farouq disclosed this in Abuja, at the first annual Ministerial Dialogue on the National Social Register.
She, however, noted that because of the size of the database, other Ministries, Departments, and Agencies would find the relevant database for interventions.
According to her another 20 million individuals are expected to be added to the database and held in the Rapid Response Register – a shock responsive intervention register specifically targeted at urban informal workers impacted by the current COVID-19 pandemic.
“As we speak, some of the programmes under the European Union funding stream are accessing the NSR database for their intervention. The United Nations Development Fund (UNDP), United Nations Women (UN Women) has also mined this database for its interventions, similarly, the National Health Insurance Scheme has mandated all State Contributory Health Management Schemes to mine from the register for social insurance schemes. At the State level, Anambra, Lagos and Kaduna State has mandated all their Ministries to mine the database for pro-poor interventions”. She said.
The Minister further noted that the Social Register has covered the 36 States of the Federation and the FCT.
“We are in 601 LGAs out of the 774 LGAs in Nigeria. We have covered 7,320 wards and 72,363 communities. This structure automatically provides the biggest database for any social develop/social protection intervention”. Farouq added.
According to the Minister of Youths and Sports, Sunday Dare, the National Social Register is a viable tool in assisting the youths to plan, seek partners and build collaborations.
“The paths that we are travelling on under President Muhammadu Buhari is a path that lays very clearly a solid foundation not just only for the Mass of our youths and women, but for every targeted group within the Nigerian societal strata. I’m sure that we will work forth from here, building stronger linkages, our youths will receive greater attention, our women will receive greater attention, and as we build this linkage, we can Indeed increase the number of our countrymen and women that will be lifted out of poverty as promised by Mr President”. He said
For his part, the Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige the Ministry is concerned about the growing number of unemployment which had surpassed the number of wealth creation in Nigeria.
” This 774 thousand is Just a COVID-19 intervention programme for 3 months. So, after 3 months, we need to reconjugate these people. So it’s very, very important”. He stated
The incidence of poverty remains high and pervasive in Nigeria. As of 2019, the National Bureau of Statistics estimated that about 40. 2 % of Nigerians which equals 82.9 million live below the poverty line.
This figure might have changed with a potential addition of 10 million new poor due to COVID-19.
PIAK
