The European Union (EU) ambassador to Nigeria, Gautier Mignot, says the organisation has given the country €13 million to expand its social protection system.
Mignot spoke in Abuja on Thursday to mark the introduction of Nigeria’s sustainable social protection system.
The EU ambassador stated that the financing will help to expand and digitise the national social register as part of the project, which would be carried out by the United Nations Children’s Education Fund (UNICEF) and the International Labour Organisation (ILO).
“It will include improved mechanisms to create a strong, responsive system that serves as a tool for policy planning toward poverty reduction, while also being interoperable with other related databases,” he said.
“We are fully aware of the importance of social protection in addressing poverty, empowering individuals, fostering social inclusion, and promoting resilience in the face of emergencies.”
He stated that Nigeria, Africa’s most populous country, has a large proportion of its inhabitants living in abject poverty.
Mignot stated that administrations at all levels have been working hard, with backing from foreign partners, to solve these vital concerns by allocating some of the country’s resources to poverty reduction.
While acknowledging that much work remained to be done, he advocated for the creation of a comprehensive national social registry to identify the impoverished and assure their eligibility for social security benefits.
Minister of Budget and Economic Planning, Abubakar Bagudu, praised the EU’s support for Nigeria’s sustainable and innovative social protection programme (EU-SUSI).
He said the programme would help strengthen gaps in the social protection register and improve community resilience in states like Adamawa, Abia, Benue, Borno, Kebbi, Oyo, and Sokoto.