The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has donated information and communication technology (ICT) equipment to the Sokoto State Operations Coordinating Unit (SOCU) for 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, Michel Juma, said the support was to strengthen and ensure a functional National Social Register (NSR) for more poor and vulnerable persons.

Mr Juma assured more partnership in order to expand access to federal and state-managed social protection programmes for vulnerable households.

UNICEF’s social policy specialist, Ibrahim Isa, said the EU-SUSI project was targeting the enrollment of one million poor and vulnerable households from four states.

Mr Isa said the states comprised Abia, Benue, Oyo, and Sokoto, adding that the effort was to enrol beneficiaries into the National Social Register before the end of 2025, estimating that each state was 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.

“To support this effort, UNICEF is providing 200 tablets, 200 power banks, three laptops, and other logistics to facilitate smooth operations,” Isa noted.

Responding, the state commissioner for budget and economic planning, Zayyana Abubakar, thanked UNICEF for the support and reiterated government’s commitment to social protection through various initiatives.

Mr Abubakar said the efforts included monthly cash transfers to persons with disabilities across the 23 LGAs, school feeding programmes, pension payments, health insurance coverage, and support for retired civil servants.

He said the donation would assist in expanding social protection coverage in order to reach more vulnerable households across the state.

Mr Abubakar disclosed that the state had recently conducted its own Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) survey to provide updated data, following concerns over the methodology of the 2022 national survey by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).

The commissioner commended the stakeholders for their active participation, stating that their contributions were invaluable in shaping policies to support poor and vulnerable populations.

(NAN)