Verification of social register ongoing — we’re partnering with states, says Betta Edu

Betta Edu, minister of humanitarian affairs and poverty alleviation, says verification of the national social register is ongoing to better categorise and identify Nigerians in dire need of aid.

Edu spoke on Friday during an interview with Channels Television.

The existing social register, compiled under the past administration, has been criticised in certain quarters for lacking in credibility.

The national economic council (NEC), chaired by Vice-President Kashim Shettima, had resolved to update the register.

The NEC agreed that states should come up with their own registers using formal and informal means.

Edu said her ministry would engage with state governors and stakeholders in the local governments to verify and expand the register.

“The first thing which we are starting almost immediately is the verification of the social register,” she said. 

“In a couple of weeks, we have been going back and forth with the governors’ forum and several interested parties, saying ‘the register is okay and not okay. The people who are truly poor are not on the list’.

“We are going to first carry out a full verification of the social register to ensure that truly it is the poorest of the poor, those who deserve to be on that list, that are on that list.

“We are going to verify and update the social register and work with the governors so that they can own it.

“We are going to work with those at the local governments so they can own it.

“And we can boldly say we know these people, these are the poorest of the poor and whatever intervention is coming, these people truly deserve it.”

The social register was created for the purpose of cash transfers and other social investment programmes.