By Blessing Otobong-Gabriel
Federal government has concluded plans to include more Persons with Disabilities, PwDs, into the National Social Register, NSR, of poor and vulnerable Nigerians.
This was disclosed Monday in Abuja by a reliable source in the Federal Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Reduction.
It would be recalled that the decision to accommodate more PwDs in the register came after six years of intensive struggle by some civil society organisations and groups of persons with disabilities for government to see the need to include them due to their vulnerability.
According to the source, with this development, PwDs will now enjoy certain percentage of every social intervention programme undertaken by the ministry.
It would be recalled that the federal government had earlier announced reservation of ten percent quota of its social intervention programmes to PwDs.
The National Social Register is a database of poor and vulnerable households in Nigeria, created in 2016 by government in partnership with the World Bank.
The register is built using a combination of three targeting mechanisms – Geographic Targeting, Community Based Targeting and Proxy Means Test.
The objective of NSR is to create a comprehensive database of indigent households in the country so as to assist government design, coordinate and integrate social safety-net programmes into social protection systems.
The goal was not just to help, but to create a lasting platform that empowers families and communities to overcome the daily challenges they face.
“Our minister, Professor Nantewe Yilwatda, is currently working with other stakeholders to rejig the conditional cash transfer system by digital sing the process to make it more transparent.
“You know in the past, transparency and accountability was an issue in the disbursement of conditional cash transfers to poor and vulnerable Nigerians,” the source said.
Meanwhile, efforts to get the exact number of persons with disabilities that have been captured so far in the social register were unsuccessful.
In January, the President, Joint National Associations of Persons With Disabilities, JONAPWD, Mr Abdullahi Usman presented the demands of PwDs before the minister for consideration.
The demands include their inclusion in all poverty alleviation programmes of government.
“We have presented several demands to the minister to ensure that our members are included in all federal empowerment programmes being undertaken by the ministry.
“Because, the disability community faces many challenges,” Usman said.
