By Abel Leonard/lafia
Nasarawa State Governor, Engineer Abdullahi Sule, has declared open a three-day training session for participants on the Community-Based Targeting Team (CBTT) and enumerators for developing the second phase of the Single Social Register.Engineer Sule declared the training session at an elaborate ceremony at the Aliyu Akwe Doma Banquet Hall, on Wednesday.
The Governor charged participants at the training to be meticulous in carrying out their assignment, which will facilitate collection of data that will establish a single social register, capturing targeted poor and vulnerable households in the remaining seven local government areas of the state.
Engineer Sule pointed out that training the participants will enable government register and enrol poor and vulnerable households into the National Social Register, which will be used for the facilitation of the Federal Government’s Conditional Cash Transfer under the Social Investment Programme.
He recalled that the National Social Safety Net Programme was launched in 2017, with the purpose of establishing a single social register for the poor and most vulnerable in the state, adding that Nasarawa domesticated the SIP with a view to addressing unemployment and improving the living conditions of the poorest citizens.
The Governor expressed satisfaction that 6 selected local governments in the state benefited from the scheme, geared not only at improving the living condition of the poor but also accelerate economic development in the state and Nigeria as a whole.“Government accords high priority to this segment of the SIP, owing to the fact that the Conditional Cash Transfer touches the lives of the very poor in the society,” Engineer Sule stated.
Earlier, in a welcome remarks, Focal Person/Senior Special Assistant to the Governor on Social Investment Programme and Humanitarian Services, Imran Jibrin, commended the state government for domesticating the SIP in the state.Jibrin disclosed that under the first phase of the exercise, 48, 000 poor and vulnerable across the first 6 local government areas benefited from the Conditional Cash Transfer scheme, with approval for addition 50, 000 beneficiaries about to be implemented before the year ends.
Presenting the programme implementation status by the state Coordinator, State Operations Coordinating Unit (SOCU), Adamu Hussaini Musa, disclosed that the National Social Register presently stands at over 4m poor and vulnerable households, with Nasarawa State fifth on the list, with 218 households.Musa said the purpose of the programme is to generate the poor and vulnerable households, using geographical targeting and community based targeting, to ascertain who is really poor.“All the local government areas that are poor will be identified by the CBT, using the poverty mapping, during which Lafia, Akwanga, Lafia, Awe, Nasarawa and Wamba were identified as the poorest LGAs,” he stated.
