The FCT Social Safety Net Programme has pledged to collaborate with the Nigeria Digital Identification for Development (NDID4D) project on common areas of interest to the two programmes, especially the NDID4D’s proposed Pilot Ecosystem Enrolment Project (PEEP) billed to begin on April 12, 2023.
The pledge was made by Garba Baba Gambo, the State Office Coordinating Unit (SOCU-FCT), when a delegation from the NDID4D paid him a courtesy call to intimate him of its forthcoming enrolment in the FCT, including the poor and vulnerable people, a primary area of interest to the safety net programme.
The visit followed a similar one undertaken earlier to the NASSCO, the National Coordinating Office of the programme that oversees the National safety net programme at the federal level.
Speaking earlier during the visit, Solomon Musa Odole, the NDID4D Coordinator, said the project felt it needed the collaboration as the mandate of the project to ensure an increase in the number of people having the National Identification Number (NIN) was in tune with the safety net’s collection of data on the poor and vulnerable for the National Social Register.
‘’We know you collect data too and hence our need to sit and talk with you, this goal aligned with the safety net data capture alongside the NIN,”Odole emphasised.
He stated that this would also help the NDID4D to track an indicator of its Project Development Objective that related to SOCU-FCT’s focus on the poor and the vulnerable.
After identifying the four key components of the NDID4D, Odole said the visit was also in conformity with its mandate of managing its stakeholders, especially in the light of the implementation of the PEEP.
Gambo, in his response, appreciated the idea of collaboration, saying that the safety net programme had structures from the federal to the community level, but many of its subjects were without the NIN and any mining of SOCU data by the NDID4D would help the programme update its records.
‘’We have the structure, the workforce, for state and community levels and have covered about 740 local government areas in the country especially after the national programme’s mandate was upscaled since January 2023.
‘’You are (therefore) coming at the right time’’ he told his visitors as he pledged to mobilise the programme’s Community-based targeting (CBT) and update its Rapid Response Register (RRR) for the collaboration.
“To more forward on the collaboration of the two programmes, he called for documentation from the NDID4D and the need to intimate the National Coordinating Office of the Social safety net programme on plans for the SOCU-FCT.”
This, he said, was important since the SOCU-FCT CBT would be expected to work closely with the NDID4D’s Front End Partners (FEPs) who would be conducting enrolment under the PEEP.
The meeting was attended by a team from the NDID4D comprising Dr. Emmanuel Akogun, M & E specialist, Seun Adebayo, the Environmental safe guards officer, Mouktar Adamu, the External Communications Manager, Helen Eke, the Stakeholder Manager and Mr. Tunrayo Alao, the Legal Adviser.
On the SOCU-FCT team were: The Coordinator, Garba Baba Gambo, Paul Eje, Head of Operations, Danjuma Bako, Head of M & E and Elizabeth Dauda, Head of Grievance Resolution Mechanism.
