Hope for the Needy and Skills Empowerment Foundation to Create National Social Register

Hope for the Needy and Skills Empowerment Foundation, in partnership with Morubu Grassroots Foundation, has commenced plans to create a national social register, urging Nigerians to make themselves available for the exercise.

The programme, which is an initiative of the World Bank, in collaboration with the National Social Safety Net Coordinating Office, would be used to enlist Nigerians into a database that can be mined by organisations and the government for intervention purposes.

The President of Hope for the Needy, Mr. Kerry Sholaye, while addressing newsmen on the theme: “Assisting the Federal Government in Getting the Data for the National Social Register and the State Social Register,” in Lagos, said the project would stretch through rural communities.

Sholaye also added that the programme is targeted at the nation’s poorest of the poor, saying an estimated 20 million families would be enrolled.

Noting that the project will provide employment for over 50,000 youths, he said: “We have over 200 million Nigerians currently. The National Social Register is for the poorest of the poor. This intervention programme is from the World Bank in collaboration with the National Social Safety Net Coordinating Office.

“This project is going to stretch through the communities. We are going to reach the poorest of the poor and the target is 20 million Nigerians, who will be added to the national and state social register.

“It will help enlist Nigerians into a database that can be mined by organisations. You have foreign and national organisations and you have primarily the World Bank. The World Bank is making provision for a cash transfer system that should commence immediately. Last month, the sum of N5 billion was released to states, now we want to get and update the data to ensure that an average Nigerian gets enlisted in the programme.

“The programme has begun and it will last for as long as possible. We are using this medium to call on Nigerians and ensure that the poorest of the poor in the communities will be enlisted.

“The good thing is that the project will provide employment for over 50,000 youths because the youth will be engaged from the state level, local government, to the community or ward level. This structure is going to ensure that each person who should be a beneficiary is reached.”

Source: Vanguard