Only indigent Nigerians will be listed in National Social Register – FG insists

The federal government has reassured that only indigent Nigerians, who live under one dollar a day will be considered in the National Social Register (NSR).

The Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation, Dr Betta Edu, who gave the assurance at the weekend after flagging off the verification of the National Social Register in the Makoko area of Lagos State, said that the ongoing exercise is to ensure that it accurately captures the people that deserve to be on the register.

According to her the verification exercise which has the approval of the President, Bola Ahmed Tinubu will be carried out at the 8200 polling units, wards, and communities across the country and will last for three weeks.

The National Social Register will be used to send financial assistance and help to needy Nigerians to help them cushion the economic hardship brought by the removal of fuel subsidy in June.

“We are here today in the Makoko area of Lagos state and we are here because Mr. President, Ahmed Bola Tinubu has asked us to come here and verify the National Social Register (NSR) that it is accurate and indeed it captures the people that deserve to be on that register.

“Remember that the Federal Government of Nigeria is trying to put monies in the hands of Nigerians to assist them in terms of their businesses livelihood, job creation off course help them to afford basic things like sending their children to school and ensuring that they can have access to quality healthcare services,” she said.

“For us to do this, we need to verify the National Social Register and the President, Bola Ahmed Tinubu has approved that we go down to the grassroots and ensure that the NSR is a true reflection of people who are poor, people who live under one dollar a day and people who live in remote areas and in areas that truly need help. Those who should not be on the register should be removed, those who need to be on the register should be included. So we are taking this as one of the samples.

“We are doing both the community targeting and geographical targeting. This is our first sampling and we have gone around,  have seen that certain aspects of the Makoko were covered under the NSR, however, the last area we came from is not reflected on the NSR so we’ll be coming back to do a targeted capturing of the people in this area. This activity will carry on across the entire country,” Dr. Edu added

She also assured that the ministry would work with the state governments and other levels of government to ensure that the register is devoid of interference and personal interest.

“We will work with the governors, we will work with the states, we will work with the local govt, we will work with the community heads to ensure we have a National Social Register that had the integrity and we can be sure that those who Nigerians will be making the conditional cash transfer to are people who truly need it; devoid of political interference, devoid of social interference, devoid of any personal interest – these are Nigerians and they are the ones that are concerned to Asiwaju Ahmed Tinubu our dear president and that’s why I’m here today.

“Equally, as part of the trip, we’ve also given them a free health outreach because we won’t come here just empty handed and we’ve tried to see that we can send in some food items, some palliative to them. The distribution will still continue after I’m gone. They will go from house to house, using the boat to drop at their various locations. This is actually what we need to do to ensure that we target the right persons as we make the move to end poverty in Nigeria and reduce the humanitarian crisis,” the minister said.