The Honourable Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Reduction Professor Nentawe Goshwe Yilwatda has said that the Ministry is working on reviewing the National Social Register (NSR) that will include vulnerable persons across the country.
The Minister made this known when the delegation of World Food Programme paid a courtesy visit to the Ministry in Abuja.
The Minister said currently there are 19 million Households in the NSR but only 1.2 m have digital identity. In line with President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s target to have 15 m Households with digital identity on the NSR, the Ministry in collaboration with the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) has commenced the train the trainers programme on data capturing for NSR.
The Honourable Minister of State, Dr Tanko Yusuf Sununu also stated that the Ministry is ready to partner WFP to reduce poverty in Nigeria. He said the Ministry is taking proactive measures to address issues of food insecurity and malnutrition in children in the country . He assured WFP that the Ministry will look into the MOU already drafted by WFP and sign the document.
Earlier the Country Director WFP David Stevenson told the Ministers that WFP in terms of grant support is one of the biggest UN donor agencies. It has a 5 – year Strategic Plan from 2023-2027 worth 2.5 billion US dollars.
He said WFP provides food assistance for vulnerable persons and Home Grown School Feeding Programme.
The Deputy Country Director, Guy Adoua advocated for the revival of the Home Grown School Feeding Programme which has been suspended for some time now.
He said WFP is ready to support the programme and seeing out of school children enrolling in schools.
Signed
Iliya Rhoda Ishaku
Director Information and Public Relations