NASSCO Validates 11.5m NINs in Social Register
The National Social Safety Nets Coordinating Office has moved to significantly strengthen the credibility of Nigeria’s social intervention system by linking more than 12.3 million citizens to the National Social Register through their National Identification Numbers. The integration, disclosed during a high-level stakeholder meeting in Abuja on Thursday, represents a major step in the Federal Government’s broader efforts to eliminate fraud and ensure welfare programmes reach genuinely vulnerable households.
Dr Funmi Olotu, the National Coordinator of NASSCO, addressed local government chairmen gathered for the engagement themed “Strengthening Local Government Leadership for Inclusive Development and Social Protection Delivery.” She explained that the NIN integration initiative was designed specifically to improve data integrity, remove duplicate records, and direct government resources with precision to intended beneficiaries.
The scale of the exercise is substantial. The National Social Register currently covers over 20 million households and more than 77 million individuals distributed across all 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory. So far, the integration process has spanned 37 states, 774 local government areas, 8,756 wards, and 217,777 communities. Within this scope, officials have updated over 9.7 million household records, captured 12.3 million NINs, and successfully validated 11.5 million of those numbers.
Olotu stressed that the effort aligned with President Bola Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda, emphasising that effective implementation required local government authorities to take direct ownership of the process. She noted that local governments, being closest to communities, possessed the institutional proximity necessary to ensure credible verification and grassroots coordination.
“Local governments are not merely administrative structures, but institutions of service delivery, closest to the people and essential to translating policy into real outcomes in citizens’ lives,” Olotu stated during the engagement.
The Permanent Secretary of the Federal Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Reduction, Olubunmi Olusanya, reinforced the urgency of full NIN integration. He warned that without complete integration, millions of vulnerable Nigerians risked exclusion from government programmes. Olusanya described the National Social Register as central to Nigeria’s poverty reduction and humanitarian response framework, particularly as the ministry advances what it calls a “One Humanitarian One Poverty Response System” to harmonise interventions across government institutions.
Olusanya emphasised that NIN integration would substantially reduce programme duplication and enhance the reliability of data used for planning and delivery. He positioned local governments as fundamental to the process, describing them as representing “the first line of credibility, verification, and last mile delivery.”
The stakeholder engagement brought together local government chairmen, officials from the Association of Local Governments of Nigeria, development partners, and civil society organisations involved in social protection delivery.
The Federal Government has intensified social register reforms in recent years amid persistent concerns about transparency, targeting accuracy, and accountability in social intervention programmes. The NIN integration initiative represents the latest component of these broader reforms.