National Coordinator of the National Social Safety Nets Coordinating Office (NASSCO), Mr. Apera Iorwa, said on Sunday, that no fewer than seven million poor and vulnerable households in Nigeria comprising about 30 million persons were registered between 2018 and February, 2021.
He told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) that with the registration so far, President Muhammadu Buhari’s vision to lift 100 million Nigerians out of poverty in 10 years was realistic and achievable.
He said NASSCO started with about 350,000 poor and vulnerable households in the National Social Register (NSR) in 2018 and by February 2021, the NSR had recorded about seven million poor and vulnerable households across the 36 states of the federation and the Federal Capital Territory, which translates to about 30 million registered individuals.
“However, our target is 100 million in 10 years. President Buhari made the pronouncement in 2019 and in 2021 we have 30 million in our database that can be reached today with any form of help to push them out of poverty.
The Federal Government is already paying about two million people, under the Conditional Cash Transfer Initiative. The government is also giving some people from the NSR menial jobs. If we address the 30 million Nigerians currently in the NSR now, we can get them out of poverty in the next two years.
The Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, Hajiya Sadiya Umar Farouq, sold the idea to her colleagues that in poverty alleviation programmes in agriculture, health, education and others, the NSR could be used,” Iorwa said.
He spoke of success stories in Kwara, where women beneficiaries of the cash transfer programme contributed monies out of what government was giving them, to build a community primary school.
While emphasizing that the database could be used as a baseline, to evaluate the level of progress to which the government was impacting on the lives of the people, Iorwa said, “So, it is very possible to take 100 million Nigerians out of poverty in the next 10 years when concerted efforts are made towards a robust system, to identify these people and keep them where government can have access to them”.
