The Federal Government has commenced the verification of the National Social Register to identify genuine beneficiaries of the palliatives.
Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation, Betta Edu who made this known at the commencement of the Federal Government’s National Social Register verification in Makoko, at the weekend in Lagos, added that the exercise aims to guarantee the accuracy of the federal government’s social register which includes individuals who are genuine beneficiaries.
The Minister said the exercise would be carried out across the country to ensure that the National Social Register has integrity.
She said, “We are here today in the Makoko area of Lagos state because President Bola Tinubu has asked us to come here and verify the National Social Register”
“The President desires to ensure that the social register is accurate and indeed captures the people that deserve to be on that register.
“The Federal Government of Nigeria is trying to put money in the hands of Nigerians to assist them in terms of their businesses, livelihood, job creation, of course, to help them afford basic things like sending their children to school and ensuring that they can access to quality health services.’’
“For us to do this, we need to verify the National Social Register.”
She further stated that the president is unwavering in his commitment to ensuring that individuals listed in the national social register are genuinely impoverished and subsist on less than one dollar per day.
The verification exercise will include extensive outreach to validate the national social register and ensure it accurately captures impoverished Nigerians living on less than one dollar a day, and residing in remote and genuinely disadvantaged areas in need of assistance.
“Those who should not be on the register should be removed. Those who need to be on the register should be included.
“And so, we are taking this as one of the samples. We are doing both community targeting and geographical targeting.
“This is our first sample and we have gone round and we have seen that certain aspects of the Makoko were covered under the national register.
“However, the last area that we came for was not reflected on the national social register and so, we will be coming back to do a targeted capturing of the people in this area,” Edu said.
“We will work with the governors, we will work with the states, we will work with the local governments and we will work with the community heads.
“And we can be sure that those who are being captured and those we will be making the conditional cash transfers to are those who truly need it devoid of political interference, devoid of social interference and devoid of personal interest,” she said.
