Stakeholders on social protection in Katsina State have encouraged the use of social register as a tool for executing successful government social assistance programmes.

The stakeholders made this known in Katsina on Friday during a one-day sensitisation of major stakeholders on the importance of the register.

The exercise was organised by the state operations coordinating unit with support from UNICEF, Kano field office.

The state Commissioner for Budget and Economic Planning, Bello Kagara, said that the aim was to ensure that any support coming to the state would go to those in need.

He said the essence of the meeting was to promote understanding, value and effect of the register in ensuring that services across critical areas reach the poor and vulnerable persons.

“It is meant to ensure that services rendered by CSOs, donor partners, and wealthy individuals reach the poor and vulnerable people in the state. And also to share experiences on how our collective activities would add value to the lives and well-being of the socially disadvantaged groups. The value of the register is to ensure that social justice is done to those people that are disadvantaged in one way or the other,” the commissioner said.

The state Coordinator of SOCU, Kabir Adamu, said the register “is a list of the poorest and vulnerable households identified by their community that require intervention and support against economic shock.”

According to him, it is a platform that can be used to support the poor and vulnerable members of the society to live a life of dignity, especially the aged, widows, orphans, almajirai and IDPs.

He said, “It is also a gateway to access the needy without any political, religious or tribal sentiments. It is transparent and accountable, because beneficiaries can be supported directly. It attracts intervention globally because of digitisation of bank accounts, phone numbers, geo-coordinate systems and other electronic means of verification that create confidence in the donors. Categories of people in the social register also include nursing/lactating mothers, farmers, youths, children and persons with disabilities.’’

A social policy specialist with UNICEF, Kano Field Office, Fatima Musa, represented a paper titled: ‘Utilising the social register towards building an effective system for intervention.”

According to the SP specialist, the social register plays not only a social policy role of inclusion but also an operational role as a register.

She added that it serves as an information system that supports outreach, intake, registration, and determination of potential eligibility for social programmes.

“It also provides a pathway for providing social services to the population of Nigerians who would have been excluded,” she said.

(NAN)