Vice President Yemi Osinbajo has assured that with the successful activation of the Economic Sustainability Plan’s (ESP) Cash Transfer scheme, the present administration’s vision of reducing extreme poverty by lifting at least 20 million Nigerians out of poverty in the next two years is now within reach.
He stated this yesterday, in Abuja, while virtually flagging-off the cash transfer scheme, to be facilitated through a wholly technology-based approach called the Rapid Response Register (RRR).
According to a statement issued by the VP’s spokesman, Laolu Akande, the scheme is aimed at delivering financial support to at least one million urban-based households using technology.
The statement explained that the RRR is the means by which the country’s urban poor and vulnerable population can be speedily identified using geographic satellite technology and other related means, for the purposes of delivering cash to households affected by the fallouts of the COVID-19 pandemic in the country.
Osinbajo maintained that the launch of the RRR social protection method of targeting, which he said, is the first strategy to be developed and tested in the African sub-Saharan region, will enable Nigeria to tackle poverty in a more systematic manner, leveraging technology to expand the scope of the interventions.
According to the statement, earlier in her remarks, the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, Hajiya Sadiyya Farouq, said the initiative would provide a gateway to other important government programmes, adding that Nigeria now has a database for impact tracking and the expansion of social interventions and related programmes, in line with President Muhammadu Buhari’s vision of extending financial support to more Nigerians.
