Mr Mohammed Okorie, UNICEF Social Policy Manager, during a panel session at a one-day stakeholder engagement conference in Lagos.
By Correspondent
The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) Nigeria Social Policy Manager, Mr Mohammed Okorie, has described the National Social Register (NSR) as a vital tool to tackle poverty and improve education outcomes.
Okorie made the remark at a one-day stakeholder engagement held on Monday in Lagos with the theme, ‘Advancing Social Protection through the National Social Register’.
The event was organised by the National Social Safety-Nets Coordinating Office (NASSSCO).
Okorie said that effective collaboration among governments, development partners and policymakers would be crucial to achieving targeted interventions, using credible community-driven data.
“NSR is a database of poor and vulnerable Nigerians built through three phases of community identification, proximity testing, and verification, which ensures inclusion of those truly affected.
“The register eliminates assumptions in policy-making by providing accurate details about households, members, locations and levels of deprivation, thereby enabling targeted interventions that directly address the needs of beneficiaries.
“There is need for deliberate government effort, through policy frameworks, mandating states to establish functional systems that regularly update the register to capture changing dynamics of poverty and vulnerability nationwide,” he said.
The manager urged ministries, agencies, departments and development partners to adopt the register in all poverty reduction efforts, ensuring transparency, accountability and equal opportunity for beneficiaries beyond political or social affiliations.
He commended Lagos State Government for measures in place to drive the cause.
Okorie said that ministries such as that of women affairs relied on the NSR to implement empowerment schemes, removing bias and strengthening trust in social protection programmes.
According to him, NSR is credible and globally-recognised.
“The register adopts a life cycle approach to capture vulnerabilities across children, youth, elderly and households.”
He expressed satisfaction that the register had integrated multi-dimensional poverty indicators.
“This work-in-progress ensures continuous improvement and alignment with Nigeria’s development goals.”
Okorie urged civil society organisations, private sector institutions, philanthropists, and health agencies to collaborate in sustaining the NSR and using its data to target out-of-school children, unemployed youths and poor households for interventions.
The Minister of Education, Dr Tunji Alausa, re-affirmed Federal Government’s commitment to working with stakeholders to strengthen NSR, which he described as a vital tool for advancing education and human capital development.
Alausa was represented by Dr Folake Olatunji-David, a Director in the ministry.
He said that NSR should not be treated as a static database but as a ‘living’ tool for planning, accountability and targeted investment.
Alausa gave the assurance that the ministry would continue to collaborate with other ministries, departments, agencies, and development partners to ensure that the gains of NSR would translate into measurable improvements in education outcomes across Nigeria.
“The foundation for policy and programme implementation rests on data such as the NSR; therefore, I re-affirm our support for this laudable initiative and our readiness to work closely with the NASSCO Office,” he said.
The minister urged governments and development partners to provide the necessary support for strengthening the register as part of broader efforts to build a more resilient national social protection architecture.
The Permanent Secretary, Lagos State Ministry of Economic Planning and Budget, Mrs Olayinka Ojo, said that the state had a strong partnership with UNICEF and had recorded achievements rooted on reliable and quality data guiding policies and investments in social welfare.
Ojo commended the state Gov. Babajide Sanwo-Olu’s administration for deliberate, evidence-based interventions which had consistently delivered measurable impacts across sectors.
“Our successes today stem from quality data-driven investments,” he said.
Earlier, the Director of the Social Protection Coordinating Department in Lagos State, Mrs Oluwakemi Garbadeen-Adedeji, described the register as the backbone of interventions, saying that it contained over 230 data points to properly classify households.
“With the register, we now work directly with registrants, identifying widows, vulnerable children and persons with disability, linking them to ministries, agencies and programmes
Donor-agencies and development partners which participated in the event include World Bank Group, Action Against Hunger, World Food Programme, United Nations Development Programme and Tony Elumelu Foundation.