The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) Nigeria Social Policy Manager, Mr Mohammed Okorie, has described the National Social Register (NSR) as a critical instrument for tackling poverty and improving education outcomes.
Okorie made the remark on Monday in Lagos at a one-day stakeholder engagement themed “Advancing Social Protection through the National Social Register”, organised by the National Social Safety-Nets Coordinating Office (NASSCO).
He emphasised that effective collaboration among governments, development partners and policymakers was essential for achieving targeted interventions, using credible community-driven data.
“The NSR is a database of poor and vulnerable Nigerians built through three phases community identification, proxy means testing, and verification which ensures the inclusion of those truly affected.
“The register eliminates assumptions in policymaking by providing accurate details about households, members, locations, and levels of deprivation, thereby enabling interventions that directly address the needs of beneficiaries.
“There is a need for deliberate government effort, through policy frameworks, mandating states to establish functional systems that regularly update the register to capture the changing dynamics of poverty and vulnerability nationwide,” he said.
Okorie urged ministries, departments, agencies and development partners to adopt the register in all poverty reduction programmes, stressing that it guarantees transparency, accountability and equal opportunity for beneficiaries beyond political or social affiliations. He commended the Lagos State Government for putting effective measures in place to drive the initiative.
He added that ministries such as the Ministry of Women Affairs already rely on the NSR to implement empowerment schemes, thereby removing bias and strengthening trust in social protection programmes. According to him, the NSR is credible, globally recognised, and adopts a life-cycle approach to capture vulnerabilities among children, youth, the elderly and households.
He expressed satisfaction that the register had integrated multi-dimensional poverty indicators, noting that it was a work-in-progress ensuring continuous improvement and alignment with Nigeria’s development goals.
Okorie also called on civil society organisations, private sector players, philanthropists, and health agencies to collaborate in sustaining the NSR and using its data to target out-of-school children, unemployed youths and poor households for interventions.
In his remarks, the Minister of Education, Dr Tunji Alausa, reaffirmed the Federal Government’s commitment to working with stakeholders to strengthen the NSR, describing it as a vital tool for advancing education and human capital development. Represented by Dr Folake Olatunji-David, a Director in the ministry, Alausa said the NSR should not be seen as a static database but as a “living” tool for planning, accountability and targeted investment.
He assured that the ministry would continue to collaborate with other government bodies and development partners to ensure that the gains of the NSR translate into measurable improvements in education outcomes across Nigeria.
“The foundation for policy and programme implementation rests on data such as the NSR; therefore, I reaffirm our support for this laudable initiative and our readiness to work closely with the NASSCO Office,” he said.
Also speaking, the Permanent Secretary, Lagos State Ministry of Economic Planning and Budget, Mrs Olayinka Ojo, said the state maintained a strong partnership with UNICEF and had recorded significant achievements rooted in reliable, quality data guiding policies and investments in social welfare.
She commended Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu’s administration for evidence-based interventions which, she said, had consistently delivered measurable impacts across sectors.
“Our successes today stem from quality, data-driven investments,” Ojo said.
Earlier, the Director of the Social Protection Coordinating Department in Lagos State, Mrs Oluwakemi Garbadeen-Adedeji, described the register as the backbone of social interventions, noting that it contained more than 230 data points to properly classify households.
“With the register, we now work directly with registrants, identifying widows, vulnerable children and persons with disabilities, linking them to ministries, agencies and programmes,” she said.
The event was attended by donor agencies and development partners including the World Bank Group, Action Against Hunger, World Food Programme, United Nations Development Programme, and the Tony Elumelu Foundation.
