FG, UNICEF, EU Assist Abia Update Social Intervention Data On Poor, Vulnerable

As one of the pilot States selected for the European Union (EU)-funded and UNICEF-organised workshop, with support of the Federal Government on sustainable social protection, Abia State has lauded the assistance as an opportunity to upgrade its social register for social interventions.

Speaking to journalists at the workshop in Umuahia, the State Commissioner for Poverty Alleviation and Social Protection, Mrs Ngozi Felix, noted that the workshop would help the State to update its social register, which was borrowed from the federal government, but found to be deficient because it omitted some communities in some LGAs.

She said the Federal Government assisted programme tagged, “Supporting Sustainable Social Protection” targets the poor and vulnerable members of society, who need access to education and good health, to survive, but cannot afford it.

The Commissioner declared that the State’s approach to poverty alleviation is multi-dimensional and all-inclusive, not just about handing out palliatives, citing the over 800,000 children on free and compulsory education from Primary to Junior Secondary School as part of measures to alleviate poverty.

Mrs Felix affirmed that fighting poverty also involved offering accessible services in education and healthcare even as she disclosed that the State health insurance scheme, with over 100,000 enrollees, would soon be expanded to people in the informal sector, pointing out that the Primary Health Sector, which the government is massively retrofitting, is also aimed at taking care of the poor and vulnerable, the disabled, widows, sick and elderly.

Also, in an interview, the Commissioner for Budget and Planning, Mr Kingsley Anosike, stressed the importance of having reliable data for easy planning, asserting that the State is vigorously upgrading its database to enable it to effectively tackle any social challenge in future.

Speaking also in an interview, a UNICEF consultant, Mr Nard Huijbregts of Economic Policy Research Institute, Cape Town, South Africa, said that he was engaged for the EU/UNICEF, programme, to review Abia State database and social intervention register in line with the National Social Implementation Policy of Nigeria, adopted since 2023 as well as National Social Register of 2017.

Huijbregts disclosed that over 20 million poor and vulnerable households are being targeted, and that the duties of the Economic Policy Research Institute are to identify the deserving households and link them with the social protection registry for programmes like the national cash transfer.

He added that before coming to Abia, they had worked in Sokoto, Oyo and Benue.

The UNICEF Social Policy Officer in Enugu field office, Mr Victor Chima, said “UNICEF is providing technical support alongside other partners, including the International Labour Organisation, to ensure that the social protection system for Abia State is strengthened, the social register is expanded and the policy adequately funded and implemented.”

According to him, “The project intends to strengthen the social protection system, which means that the poor and vulnerable are covered and documented and that social services are made available to those who do not have the wherewithal to afford them.

“It is also expected that this intervention would ensure that the social register for the State, which is a tool for targeting the poor and vulnerable, is adequate, is expansive and also has the information required to target the poor and vulnerable.”