The Sokoto government, in collaboration with the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), is targeting no fewer than 250,000 new households in the expansion of the National Social Register in the state.

The state Commissioner for Budget and Economic Planning, Abubakar Zayyana, disclosed this at the end of the orientation exercise tagged “Multidimensional Model” for seven pilot local government teams and stakeholders in Sokoto on Saturday.

Mr Zayyana described the exercise as crucial, assuring that it would produce a credible, transparent document for social protection programmes.

The commissioner emphasised that social protection was aimed at reducing social injustice, exclusion, and insecurity, while improving human capital development, among other benefits.

Mr Zayyana reassured the government’s commitment to numerous social protection interventions, saying, “Coupled with the efforts of partners, positive change will be witnessed in the state’s multidimensional index.”

He reiterated the state government’s focus on results rather than outcomes and urged all stakeholders to work diligently to achieve the desired goals.

The UNICEF social policy specialist, Isa Ibrahim, who represented the chief of UNICEF, Sokoto field office, Michael Juma, said the new multidimensional social register approach was designed to integrate the most deprived households into the basic services.

Mr Juma identified the deprived services to include children’s fundamental rights to education, nutrition, health, birth certificates, and access to water and sanitation, among others.

He noted that it was also a single database of poor and vulnerable households, community profiles, and their deprivation status in the country, “which will harmonise all the State Social Registers (SSRs). This can be made available to any poverty intervention programme, upon demand.”

Mr Juma appealed to the local government teams to cooperate with the enumerators and other teams to ensure the successful expansion of the social register to integrate the targeted 250,000 households across the state.

He revealed that the new model aimed to integrate a multidimensional poverty perspective into the operations of the National Social Register, positioning it as a gateway to health, nutrition, education, and social services through established referral systems.

In his remarks, the chairman of Shagari Local Government, Maidawa Kajiji, who spoke on behalf of the seven LG chairmen, commended the ministry and UNICEF for their efforts.

Sultan of Sokoto, Sa’ad Abubakar, represented by the district head of Gagi, Sani Umar-Jabbi, noted that the state government’s efforts, through the Ministry of Budget and UNICEF, were bridging gaps and harmonising the social register.

Mr Abubakar said the efforts would benefit all citizens of the state and called on participants to support the crusade.

(NAN)