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80 million people are poor in Nigeria ― Presidency

Maryam Uwais stated this figure while briefing correspondents about the achievements of the National Social Investment Programme.

This was disclosed by the Special Adviser to the president on National Social Investment Programme (NSIP) Maryam Uwais, who briefed State House correspondents in Abuja on the achievements of her office, who also stated that the estimate is from World Poverty Clock.

She said 297,973 poor households in 20 states are now been paid stipends under the Conditional Cash Transfer Programme (NCTP).

According to her, even though credible targeting has been a major concern, SIP has started to develop a Social Register in all the states that have met the criteria provided in the MoU signed with the NSIP Office.

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She said: “It is important for us to get the targeting right so only the poorest of the poor will get paid. We have, according to statistics, up to 80 million people that are poor. And so, we had to device a strategy to ensure that we get the poorest and also insulate the process of getting to that poorest from any outside influence, whatever the influence maybe."

“So what we do fight is sign an MOU with the states. We have roles and responsibility on each side though we know is not enforceable but we want both sides to know what their responsibilities are. We select 30% because we had cash constraints. We couldn’t cover 80 million people that were poor. We now said we will start with 30% from each state. That comes to 30% of the poorest of the poor from each senatorial district."

“Working with NBS, we looked at the local governments that are the poorest in the senatorial districts for a balance and we shared the names of the local government with the states. They signed off.”

She added: “So far, we have 455,857 poor and vulnerable households uploaded onto the National Social Register, from which 297,973 households have been mined and are being paid stipends in 20 States. These States are Jigawa Bauchi, Kogi, Osun, Cross River, Anambra, Katsina, Kano, Taraba, Gombe, Adamawa, Niger, Nassarawa, Benue, Oyo, Ekiti, Kwara, Borno (IDP), Kaduna and Plateau.”

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Uwais, who noted that NSIP’s mandate covered N-power, National Home Grown School Feeding (NHGSFP), Government Enterprise and Empowerment (GEEP) and the National Cash Transfer Programme (NCTP), recalled that the first payments were made in December 2016, signaling the commencement of the actual implementation of what must be the most ambitious social protection programme conceived and being implemented for the country.

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