…. Promises to work with States, LGAs, and Traditional Rulers, community heads for Accurate Data
By Gbemiga Olamikan.
The Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation, Dr. Betta Edu has flagged off verification of the National Social Register (NSR) in Oko Agbon, Adogbo, Migbewhe, Makoko, Sogunro and Apollo villages in Lagos State, South West Nigeria, with a promise to get Nigerians a social register with integrity.
This was contained in a statement signed by Special Adviser on Media and Publicity to the Minister, Rasheed Olanrewaju Zubair.
Rasheed noted that National Social Register Verification will be extended to other parts of Lagos State after the Flag-off as the exercise which commenced simultaneously across the country in line with President Bola Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda, will last for three weeks.
Speaking shortly after she carried out door to door verification of the register at the remote Lagos suburb, the Minister, who was ferried in a canoe, 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.
Dr Edu revealed that the exercise is an integrity tests, 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.
“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, subsidize their daily transportation cost, give them spending power to provide for basic health care needs, job creation etc”.
“For us to do this, we need to verify the National Social Register, the President has given approved that we should go down to the grassroots and ensure that the National Social Register is a true reflection of truly poor people.”
She said that, “We need to verify that people on the list, live below one dollar 95 cents a day and are affected by multi-dimensional poverty, sincerely those are who need help; those who have no business being there should be removed, those who need to be on the register should be included”.
Speaking further, Edu said: “We are doing both community targeting and geographical targeting, we have seen that certain areas of Makoko, 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. Our State Governors, will chair the steering committee at state while the Local Government Areas, and Community Leaders will be involved to get NSR with Integrity.”
“We want to ensure that those who will be getting the money are those who truly need it with zero political social or personal interference”.
