October 19, 2022

The Kaduna State Government says a total of 2.98 million poor and vulnerable individuals from 778,662 households have been captured on its Social Register.

Mrs. Saude Atoyebi, Focal Person, Kaduna Social Investment Office (KADSIO) stated this in Kaduna on Tuesday, at a one-day policy dialogue to commemorate the 2022 International Day for the Eradication of Poverty.

The dialogue was organised by the Kaduna Social Protection Accountability Coalition with the theme, “Social Protection as a Tool to Ending Poverty in Kaduna State”.

The dialogue was supported by Save the Children International (SCI) under its Expanding Social Protection for Inclusive Development with funding from the United Kingdom Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO).

Atoyebi, who was represented by Mrs. Nina Yakwal, Coordinator, State Operations and Coordinating Unit (SOCU), said that the register was used in the delivery of social protection programmes.

“The State Social Register is a database of poor and Vulnerable Households (PVHHs), which is generated through a credible targeting process and used primarily for planning purposes.

“So far, 2,978,538 individuals from 778,662 PVHHs across the 23 local government areas of the state have been captured on the Social Register, comprising all the Local Government Areas in Kaduna State,” she said.

Atoyebi said that so far about 1.5 million poor and vulnerable populations had benefited from one form of social protection intervention or the other.

She added that 850,000 of the 1.5 million were benefitting from various Federal Government social investment programmes in the state.

Earlier, the Chairperson, KADSPAC, Ms. Jessica Bartholomew, explained that the objective of the dialogue was to advocate for an inclusive and shock responsive social protection programmes in the state.

Bartholomew added that the dialogue was also to advocate for increased coverage of social protection programmes to reach more poor and vulnerable people in need of intervention in the state.

“We also want to get commitment from political parties and candidates to sustain social protection programmes as a tool to end multidimensional poverty.

“We have already launched a campaign to the electorates and political party candidates on using social protection to end poverty in the state.

“This is part of our efforts in ensuring sustainability of social protection programmes and increased investment in the sector to lift the poor and vulnerable out of poverty and save them from economic shocks,” she said.

She pointed out that addressing poverty would largely solve the problem of out of school children, health care services, criminal activities, and infant and child mortality rate in the state.

Mr. Yimave Gyanggyang, Senior Stakeholder Engagement, SCI, commended the state government for the laudable efforts towards strengthening social protection systems through the development and approval of social protection policy.

Gyanggyang called on the state government to institutionalize social protection through a legal framework for sustainability.

The SDGs Coordinator, Planning and Budget Commission, Hajiya Aisha Mohammed, urged residents to be champions of SDGs by taking action that would contribute to the achievement of the SDGs.

Mohammed said during a panel discussion on “Using Social Protection as a Tool to Ending Poverty in Kaduna State,” that addressing poverty would address all the remaining goals. (NAN)