Federal government has commenced verification of individuals under the National Social Register, (NSR), in communities across Lagos and the South Western states to ensure accuracy of available data ahead of government’s poverty alleviation intervention such as cash transfers.

Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation, Dr. Betta Edu, flagged off the exercise, in Lagos state even as it is expected to take place simultaneously across the country.

Promising that government will get the data right so that those targets under the intervention will indeed be reached, she said the exercise will last for three weeks.

“Federal government is going to put money into the households in Nigerians to assist them in terms of their businesses, livelihood, education, to be able to pay fees for their children, improve access to social services, subsidize their daily transportation cost, give them spending power to provide for basic health care needs, job creation etc.

“For us to do this, we need to verify the National Social Register, the President has approved that we go down to the grassroots and ensure that the National Social Register is a true reflection of truly poor people.

“We need to verify that people on the list live below one dollar 95 cents a day and are affected by multi dimensional poverty and sincerely are those who need help; those who have no business being there should be removed those who need to be on the register should be included,” Dr. Edu said.

Speaking shortly after she carried out door-to-door verification of the register at Makoko, a remote Lagos suburb, the minister said the federal government was ready to put money into the hands of Nigerians to assist them in their businesses, education of their children, livelihood, and job creation.

According to her, the exercise is an integrity tests.” President Bola Tinubu wants sincerity in who gets the conditional cash transfers. He wants to truly touch the lives of the poor and change things for the better”.

She said those who were captured would be checked to know if they deserved to be on the register or not, while areas that was left out will be covered.

She said:”We are doing both community targeting and geographical targeting, we have seen that certain areas of Oko Agbon, Adogbo, Migbewhe, Makoko, Sogunro and Apollo villages have been covered by NSR, while certain areas have not been captured,we will capture them.

“The activities we will flag off here are being carried out across the country, working with states and communities. Our State Governors, will chair the steering committee at state while the Local Government Areas, and Community Leaders will be involved to get NSR with Integrity.

“We want to ensure that those who will be getting the money are those who truly need it with zero political social or personal interference,” she said.

National Coordinator for the National Social Safety Nets Coordinating Office (NASSCO), Abdulaziz Danladi, said that strengthening the social safety nets and social protection system in the country was a core strategy to help end extreme poverty and promote shared prosperity.

In a statement signed by the minister’s Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Rasheed Zubair, Danladi explained that the core mandate of NASSCO was to lay a strong foundation for rigorous and reliable evidence of poor and vulnerable households in Nigeria which the minister is championing.