FG collaborates with governors to update social register for poverty alleviation

Betta Edu, the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation, announced that the Federal Government plans to collaborate closely with state governors, local government officials, and community leaders to verify and update the nation’s social register.

She made this known while speaking on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily on Friday, noting that this is to aid the Humanitarian Ministry’s plan of lifting millions of Nigerians out of poverty.

She said, “We are going to verify and update, and we are going to work with the governors and local governments so that they can own it.

“The very first thing which we are starting almost immediately is the verification of the social register. We are going to first carry out full verification of the social register to ensure that truly it is the poorest of the poor – those who deserve to be on that list,” she said.

She disclosed that there have been ongoing discussions with the Nigerian Governors Forum (NGF) and various stakeholders, for several weeks.

“These conversations revolved around the adequacy of the social register, with differing viewpoints. Concerns were raised about the exclusion of genuinely impoverished individuals from the list, there is some political influence to it and the rest of it,” she added.

She further stated that “One of the challenges which they raised was that they were not involved in the process of really getting the poorest of the poor.

“As a country, we have to have ownership of whatever data that we are bringing out from the grassroots, the local government people, the governors must be involved, traditional rulers and even the religious leaders should be involved.”

The minister added that working with this model will help the leaders attest that, “Yes, indeed, these are poor people in our communities, we know them. These are human beings – not just numbers and names, we can Identify them, and this is what we believe – we are comfortable working with.”

The governors at National Executive Council (NEC), had previously faulted the existing social register, stating that they lacked integrity and were unfit to execute any social intervention.