The National Social Register has captured 15,730,004 households and consists of 62,819,214 poor and vulnerable persons across states of the Federation
A Civil Society Group Known as National Social Protection Forum affirmed this in a statement made available to Newsmen in Kaduna.
The statement which was signed by National Coordinator of the Forum Dr. Taiwo Benson, says the mapping out of the Social Register followed the most acceptable standard of bottom – top approach contrary to top – bottom approach which it says was ironically presented at the last National Economic Council NEC, Meeting.
“The National Social Protection Forum, a coalition of civil society organizations wishes to express our astonishment at the recent statement by NEC on the NSR and to inform the public that the report of NEC on the register did not capture the reality of how the national social register was developed and compiled. As civil society organizations working on social protection in Nigeria who independently monitored the different stages of the development of the NSR and cash transfer programme as Third-Party Monitors with support from the World Bank and Save the Children/FCDO, we wish to state categorically that the register was developed and compiled using transparent and participatory processes which involved multisectoral stakeholders”
The National Coordinator stated that the register was developed and compiled using transparent and participatory processes , which involved multisectoral stakeholders led by staff from the local government areas and state ministries of budget and planning in each of the thirty six states , and the FCT in line with global best practices.
“while the enumerators collect the required data on each household member. The teams follow a four-step process: pre-sensitization visits, sensitization visits and mobilization, community engagement and actual enumeration. All these are done at the community, LGA and state levels before being transferred to the National Social Register”
“Individuals in over 8,000 Federal electoral wards, 764 LGAs and almost 177,421 communities across all the States of the Federation & the FCT. It is important to mention that 4 million PVHHs and 9 million individuals on the NSR have bank accounts while electronic wallets are operated for some households to enable them receive cash transfers from various programmes that have adopted the NSR for various reasons”
Dr. Taiwo Benson noted that in the identification of poor and vulnerable households, the starting point is the Nigeria Living Standards Survey (NLSS) conducted by the National Bureau of Statistics which contains comprehensive socio-economic and demographic data, and is used by the state teams to identify the LGAs with high incidences of poverty in each state.
He said the National Social Safety Nets Coordinating Office NASSCO, with support from the World Bank engaged 19 civil society organisations as independent State Third-Party Monitors from October 2019 to June 2022 in 36 states and FCT to monitor the beneficiaries of the cash transfer programmes.
Dr. Taiwo therefore emphasized that the National Social Register is a national asset that should be sustained due to its credibility in meeting the demands of poor and vulnerable Nigerians.
Rel/Shindong Bala
