The Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation, Betta Edu, has promised to review the national social register following its rejection by the National Economic Council headed by Vice President Kashim Shettima.
Edu disclosed this in an interview with reporters at the Ministry’s Office in Abuja on Wednesday, according to the News Agency of Nigeria.
She said thag the new administration will review and update the social register and verify that the people on the document are truly the ones who need the government’s financial support.
She said, “We’ll go back to it and look at it in detail and verify that these people are truly the ones we intend to reach. It’s a new administration, and we don’t underestimate the work done by the World Bank and the Office of the National Safety Net.
“However, we need to be very critical of what we’re doing because Nigerians are watching, and people will be held accountable.
“President Bola Tinubu truly wants these interventions to get to those who sincerely need it. Some governors have raised concerns, and this is just the right way to go about it.
“The register must be verified and updated. The people who don’t deserve to be there based on criteria will be taken off the register.
“Those who are truly poor by the criteria, and deserve to be on the social register will be included. No one will be left behind. The most important is that we must work with the state and local governments to be able to get a true social register for our country.
“I listened to some of the presentations just started at the different departments, units and agencies, and some of the things I could pick out was the fact that some of the registrations were done truly and, however, the involvement of the state government and in some cases local governments was not robust as it should be.
“We’ll ensure that we have the right register that we can implement properly and hold people accountable so that truly poor people are lifted out of poverty.”
