By Philip Yatai

The National Social Safety Net Coordinating Office (NASSCO), has commended the Kaduna State Government for directing the use of Social Register (SR) to mined beneficiaries of all social protection programmes in the state.

NASSCO National Coordinator, Mr Apera Iorwa, gave the commendation at the inauguration of the Kaduna State Social Protection Policy by Gov. Nasir El-Rufai in Kaduna on Tuesday.

Iorwa described the step as an example of the use of data to drive human capital development.

According to him, the use of SR to mined beneficiaries of social protection interventions is a huge example that the Federal government has keyed into in the delivery of social protection programmes.

“Gov. Nasir El-Rufai did not only direct that social register be used in the delivery of all social protection programmes in the state.

“But also insisted that the beneficiaries of the N20,000 grant recently disbursed to rural women in the state must be mined from the social register.

“You are the only state that has done that in the whole of the country.

“Following your example, the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, Hajiya Sadiya Farouk had encouraged the use of social register in mining the beneficiaries of all federal government social protection interventions.”

“We do not have a choice. Social protection is a right and COVID-19 pandemic and the crises to come has proved clearly that we need solid frameworks, foundations, building blocks that would steer social protection implementation.”

Iorwa also commended Kaduna State government for committing one per cent of its annual internally generated revenue to fund social investment programmes.

According to him, this is by far the most ambitious investment in the social protection sector by any state government in the country.

The coordinator said that the National Social Register at the moment stands at about 30 million individuals, out of the estimated 82 million poor and vulnerable in the country.  

He pointed out that If all states would emulate Kaduna State in the use of social register to plan interventions, the country would reach the milestone of lifting one million Nigerians out of poverty in soonest.  

“The social register provides the baseline and the means to measure the impact of intervention and a critical tool in poverty reduction and eradication in the country.

While inaugurating the policy, El-Rufai pointed out that whenever a programmme was designed to help the poor and vulnerable, we resort to a slot mentality in which important people are allocated slots.

This, according to him, is working against targeting the poor and vulnerable people who deserve it.

“This is unfortunate.

“We must move away from this slot mentality and use our social register to offer targeted support to those that truly need it.

“I appeal to all my colleagues, the political elites, to please drop this slot mentality and use the social register so that programmes targeting the poor and vulnerable actually go to the poor and vulnerable,” he said.

He said that in the coming weeks, a Social Protection Agency would be established to ensure that all social protection programmes were delivered in an integrated, inclusive, and sustainable manner.

The governor added that the Agency would utilize an Integrated Social Protection Management Information System, which would serve as a data repository.

“This will ensure that the poorest of the poor are prioritised in programme planning, benefits and facilitate the effective monitoring and evaluation of programme impacts.

“The government is aware of the enormous cost of providing social protection coverage for the poor and vulnerable. Yet, through this policy, we seek to guarantee minimum social protection floors for every poor and vulnerable person,” he said.

He thanked Save the Children International for the support in strengthening social protection systems in the state through the UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office-funded Child Grant Development Programme (CDGP).

“For this purpose, the Kaduna State Government welcomes partnership with all key stakeholders in the social protection space.

“Only in this sense will it be possible to achieve the laudable goal of this Policy, which is to achieve a Kaduna State where poor and vulnerable persons live productive and dignifying lives.