— First Lady says initiative will replace temporary palliatives with sustainable pathways to economic independence

BY FRONTLINE REPORTERS

 The Federal Government has launched a $1 billion social protection programme designed to move vulnerable Nigerian households beyond temporary relief and towards sustainable economic empowerment and self-reliance.

The Household Prosperity and Empowerment Social Protection Project, HOPE-SP, was unveiled on Wednesday at the State House Banquet Hall, Abuja, alongside four other initiatives aimed at strengthening the country’s humanitarian response, social protection and poverty-reduction architecture.

The other initiatives are the One-Humanitarian-One Poverty Response System, OHOPRS; the Emergency Cash Transfer Programme; the Federal Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Reduction Ministerial Blueprint; and the Humanity First Magazine.

Speaking at the launch, First Lady, Senator Oluremi Tinubu, said the initiatives represented a significant shift in the government’s approach to supporting vulnerable Nigerians, particularly against the backdrop of the far-reaching economic reforms being implemented by the administration of President Bola Tinubu.

In her keynote address, titled, “From Palliatives to Pathways,” Mrs Tinubu said the government must continue to support vulnerable families even as the reforms take effect and lay the foundation for long-term economic growth.

“Under the leadership of His Excellency, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, GCFR, our nation is implementing far-reaching reforms to strengthen the economy, lay a solid foundation for sustainable growth and shared prosperity.

“As these reforms continue to take effect, we must recognise that, given the size of our population and available resources, many families still face challenges and require our collective support,” she said.

She described HOPE-SP as a major intervention for improving the identification and support of vulnerable households by assessing their specific needs before deploying appropriate assistance.

According to her, the programme is designed not merely to provide immediate relief but to create a structured pathway through which beneficiaries can progress from stabilisation to recovery, empowerment and eventual self-reliance.

“The Household Prosperity and Empowerment Social Protection Project is an important step towards strengthening how we identify and respond to vulnerable households facing various challenges by listening to their specific needs before taking action.

“It is designed to provide immediate stabilisation assistance while placing the households on a pathway to recovery, empowerment and self-reliance,” she said.

On OHOPRS, the First Lady said the platform would establish a coordinated national mechanism for humanitarian response, social protection and poverty reduction.

She explained that the system would help eliminate duplication among government interventions while creating unified national registries through which poor and vulnerable households could be identified, supported and tracked as they progress towards economic inclusion.

Mrs Tinubu said the Emergency Cash Transfer Programme would provide rapid financial support to households affected by economic shocks, while the Ministerial Blueprint would translate the humanitarian and poverty-reduction priorities of the Renewed Hope Agenda into measurable actions.

She stressed that effective planning, coordination and accountability must remain central to the delivery of government services.

The First Lady also described the Humanity First Magazine as an important component of the initiative, saying it would document the experiences of Nigerians whose lives had been transformed through government interventions.

She commended the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Reduction, Dr Bernard Doro, and his team for developing the initiatives, expressing confidence that they would transform the country’s humanitarian interventions from short-term assistance into sustainable mechanisms for resilience, prosperity and dignity.

“I commend the Honourable Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Reduction, Dr Bernard M. Doro, and his team for these initiatives that will transform our humanitarian endeavours from temporary assistance to lasting pathways that promote resilience, self-reliance, prosperity and a dignified life for every Nigerian,” she said.

From palliatives to poverty graduation

Doro said the launch marked the beginning of a new national architecture for humanitarian intervention and social protection, with the government moving away from reactive palliatives towards proactive empowerment.

He said the economic reforms of the Tinubu administration, including the removal of the petrol subsidy and the unification of the foreign exchange market, had improved investor confidence and strengthened government revenues, but stressed that economic reforms must be accompanied by measures to shield vulnerable Nigerians from shocks and create sustainable pathways out of poverty.

According to him, the government’s objective is to move from reactive relief to anticipatory social protection and from managing poverty to reducing it.

Doro identified fragmentation as one of the major weaknesses of existing social intervention programmes, noting that initiatives operated independently across ministries, departments, agencies and different levels of government.

The fragmentation, he said, had resulted in duplication, with some beneficiaries accessing multiple interventions while other vulnerable Nigerians were left without assistance.

He said the new architecture would therefore shift the focus from programmes to households and from merely counting beneficiaries to measuring the actual impact of interventions.

Under the new system, vulnerable households would be identified, their needs assessed and appropriate interventions provided. Beneficiaries would then be tracked through what he described as a “poverty graduation pathway” towards economic inclusion and self-reliance.

The minister said the system would be supported by unified data, digital delivery infrastructure, new financing mechanisms and real-time poverty intelligence, while strengthening collaboration among federal, state and local governments and development partners.

Doro said OHOPRS would provide a single window for humanitarian and poverty-reduction interventions, ending the practice of government agencies maintaining separate registers and data centres.

He disclosed that existing databases would be integrated into a unified platform anchored on the National Social Register, which currently contains about 20 million households.

The platform, he said, would track beneficiaries from identification and intervention through an exit mechanism and eventual transition into a growth register, while a digital dashboard would provide real-time visibility across government interventions.

The minister also announced plans to establish a National Poverty Intelligence Lab, stressing that the success of social intervention programmes would henceforth be measured by the number of households protected, economically included and ultimately lifted out of poverty, rather than by the volume of materials distributed.

Bagudu: $1trn economy must deliver grassroots prosperity

Minister of Budget and Economic Planning, Senator Atiku Bagudu, said effective social protection required a whole-of-government approach involving the federal, state and local governments, as well as development partners and other stakeholders.

Bagudu said the administration’s ambition to build a $1 trillion economy by 2030 must be matched by deliberate efforts to ensure that economic opportunities and prosperity reach Nigerians at the grassroots.

He cited the administration’s ward development initiative covering the country’s 8,809 wards, saying it was designed to identify the factors driving poverty and exclusion at the community level and transform the wards into centres of prosperity and inclusion.

The minister said government was also increasing budgetary attention to peace, security and critical elements of social protection to prevent hardworking Nigerians from being pushed into poverty by domestic and global economic shocks.

He noted that international developments, including the Russia-Ukraine war and instability in the Middle East, had consequences for households and economies globally, making effective social safety nets increasingly important.

Bagudu said Nigeria already had substantial resources and programmes devoted to social protection and poverty eradication, including a World Bank portfolio worth about $6 billion.

However, he stressed that the major challenge was not necessarily the absence of resources but the need to properly coordinate and align programmes across the federal, state and local levels to maximise their impact.

Zulum seeks focus on root causes of vulnerability

Borno State Governor, Professor Babagana Zulum, commended the Federal Government for launching the initiative, describing it as an important intervention in addressing vulnerability across the country.

Zulum, whose state has faced prolonged humanitarian challenges arising from insurgency, stressed the need to address the root causes of insecurity and instability, particularly poverty and social inequality.

He said sustainable peace and security required interventions that went beyond emergency humanitarian assistance to tackle the underlying conditions that make individuals and communities vulnerable.

The governor also called for continued research into issues surrounding identity and national security, while congratulating the Federal Government and the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Reduction on the rollout of the new initiatives.

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