TheCable

Betta Edu, minister of humanitarian affairs and poverty alleviation, has tasked the National Population Commission (NPC) with providing accurate data that will aid the ministry in planning humanitarian interventions across Nigeria.

Edu spoke on Monday when she met with the NPC management led by Nasir Kwara, the commission’s chairperson, in Abuja.

The minister said the data will help in planning and implementation of the ministry’s mandate of lifting millions of Nigerians out of poverty in line with President Bola Tinubu’s renewed hope agenda.

“We have the chairman and the entire team from the NPC here in the ministry seeking collaboration. You are important to us in terms of data for the delivery of our mandate,” Edu said.

“And of course which is the renewed hope agenda by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, they are strong partners in the implementation of our mandate.

“From them we will be getting the total number of Nigerians which will help us to plan as we carry out our interventions.”

Edu added that the ministry will collaborate with the NPC to ensure effective and efficient implementation of poverty alleviation and humanitarian response at the grassroots.

“They have staff on ground in various wards, local governments and communities, and these staff are going to be collaborating with us,” she said.

“We will be setting up a technical team between the ministry and the commission to really flesh out various aspects of this collaboration.

“Beyond this, we’ll be working with their team on the geospatial digital mapping and statistics across the nation and this will help very detailed implementation of the ministry of poverty alleviation.

“And of course, humanitarian issues in the entire country, so, for us, they are a very, very viable partner and we would be supporting them all the way through.”

The minister also pointed out that specific data on the population of different demographics of the population as well as persons who are below the poverty line would be provided by the NPC, adding that the commission would also come in handy in monitoring and evaluation.

Kwara assured the minister of the commission’s commitment to supporting the ministry’s efforts in providing humanitarian interventions.

He said the NPC had already identified 65 million houses during the trial census exercise conducted across the country alongside special demographics including internally displaced persons (IDPs), fishermen, herders, those living under the bridges, among others.

Cash transfers of N25,000 are currently being paid to a number of vulnerable households and would go on for three months as part of the government’s humanitarian interventions, Edu had earlier said.