The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has donated Information and Communication Technology (ICT) equipment to the Sokoto State Operations Coordinating Unit (SOCU) to support social protection activities.
UNICEF is one of the UN agencies implementing the European Union-funded Sustainable and Inclusive Social Protection (EU-SUSI) project in Nigeria.
Presenting the items on Saturday in Sokoto, UNICEF Chief of Field Office, Mr. Michel Juma, said the support was aimed at strengthening the functionality of the National Social Register (NSR) to capture more poor and vulnerable persons.
Juma assured of continued partnership to expand access to both federal and state-managed social protection programmes for vulnerable households.
UNICEF’s Social Policy Specialist, Mr. Ibrahim Isa, explained that the EU-SUSI project targets the enrollment of one million poor and vulnerable households from four states—Abia, Benue, Oyo, and Sokoto—into the National Social Register before the end of 2025.
“Each state is expected to contribute 250,000 households. In Sokoto alone, UNICEF aims to cover 3,041 previously unlisted communities, in addition to the 877,047 households already captured in the national register,” Isa said.
“To support this effort, UNICEF is providing 200 tablets, 200 power banks, three laptops, and other logistics to ensure smooth operations,” he added.
Responding, the State Commissioner for Budget and Economic Planning, Dr. Zayyana Abubakar, thanked UNICEF for the support and reaffirmed the state government’s commitment to strengthening social protection initiatives.
He said the state had introduced various interventions, including monthly cash transfers to persons with disabilities across the 23 local government areas, school feeding programmes, pension payments, health insurance coverage, and support for retired civil servants.
According to him, the donation would further enhance Sokoto’s capacity to expand social protection coverage and reach more vulnerable households.
Dr. Abubakar disclosed that the state recently conducted its own Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) survey to generate updated data following concerns over the methodology of the 2022 national survey by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).
He commended development partners and stakeholders for their continued collaboration, noting that their contributions remain invaluable in shaping effective policies to support the poor and vulnerable population.
