Following the plan by the Federal Government to take 15 million poor Nigerians out of the poverty level, Lagos State governor, Mr. Babajide Sanwo -Olu yesterday said the state government would revalidate names of poor Lagosians on its social register.
The governor spoke when the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation, Betta Edu paid him a courtesy visit at the Lagos House, Marina.
Governor Sanwo-Olu told the minister that the state already has close to one million homes on its register but would revalidate the list for more people to benefit from the FG’s plan.
He added the state has been able to identify ‘the needy in our society, those who are poor.’
“We don’t want to lose focus. We have seen that poverty alleviation is critical. There are benefits in ensuring the agenda of the federal government works with our agenda so as to give our people a better life,” the governor said.
The minister, in her response, said poverty alleviation is one of the eight agendas of President Bola Tinubu, adding 133 million Nigerians are affected by poverty, while another 60 million have been affected by humanitarian crisis.
She commended Lagos State for hosting refugees, adding 168 refugees have been hosted by the state in the last three weeks.
Betta said the Ministry has been saddled with the responsibility to take Nigerians out of poverty, adding the federal government is targeting 15 million poor Nigerians who will benefit through school feeding programmes, building of shelters for the poor, loan to traders and farmers, among others.
She added that the federal government is wary of the fund getting into the wrong hands such as the political class, saying the cooperation of the state government especially in the verification of the number of vulnerable people in the state would be required.
“We want you to lead the process to ensure the people on the list are the real people. We want to give money to Nigerians but we don’t want it to get to the political class. We want to ensure the money gets to the right people that are really poor”, she said.
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