The Sokoto State Government, in collaboration with the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), is targeting no fewer than 250,000 additional households in the expansion of the National Social Register (NSR) in the state.
The State Commissioner for Budget and Economic Planning, Dr. Abubakar Zayyana, disclosed this on Saturday at the close of an orientation exercise tagged “Multidimensional Model” for seven pilot local government teams and stakeholders in Sokoto.
Zayyana described the exercise as crucial, saying it would produce a credible and transparent data system to support social protection programmes.
He explained that social protection interventions were designed to reduce social injustice, exclusion and insecurity, while improving human capital development.
According to him, the social register provides a data-driven foundation for the government and development partners to plan interventions, target beneficiaries and measure impact more effectively.
Zayyana reaffirmed the government’s commitment to strengthening social protection initiatives, noting that with the support of partners, the state’s multidimensional poverty index would significantly improve.
He urged all stakeholders to work diligently to ensure the successful implementation of the exercise.
UNICEF’s Social Policy Specialist, Mr. Isa Ibrahim, who represented the Chief of UNICEF Sokoto Field Office, Mr. Michael Juma, said the new multidimensional social register model was designed to integrate the most deprived households into basic services.
He listed these services to include children’s access to education, nutrition, healthcare, birth registration, clean water and sanitation.
Ibrahim explained that the model provides a single database of poor and vulnerable households, their community profiles and deprivation status—harmonizing all State Social Registers (SSRs) for use by any poverty-reduction programme.
He appealed to local government teams to cooperate fully with enumerators and support the expansion process to ensure the successful integration of the targeted 250,000 households.
Ibrahim said the new model would strengthen inclusivity, equity and transparency through improved community engagement and grievance-redress mechanisms.
Speaking on behalf of the seven local government chairmen, the Chairman of Shagari LGA, Maidawa Kajiji, commended the ministry and UNICEF for the initiative, saying it would help reduce poverty and improve social protection for vulnerable groups.
Also speaking, the Sultan of Sokoto, Sa’ad Abubakar III, represented by the District Head of Gagi, Sani Umar-Jabbi, noted that the collaboration between the state government and UNICEF was helping to bridge gaps and harmonize the social register.
He urged participants to support the initiative, stressing that its benefits would extend to all residents of the state.
