Betta Edu, the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation, has vowed to deploy technology such as the Global Positioning System, GPS, in distributing fuel subsidy palliatives and other poverty alleviation items to Nigerians across the country.
The minister, who disclosed this during an interview with Arise Television on Wednesday, said the present administration would involve the private sector and development partners in eradicating poverty in the country.
She said, “As it concerns the palliatives, we need to re-work the logistics. In the past, I have been exposed to programmes such as the immunisation programmes in Cross Rivers State and other places around the country where we have to take health care to people’s doorsteps and immunise them.
“I think the aspect of having people come together or come to a particular location to pick up their palliatives is not really helpful.
“For us, we would think that it would be better to improve on the logistics and drop it at their doorstep, where they live.
“That way, they can sign off, and be sure that these families have received it. Of course, technology can tell you where a person is, using the GPS and the rest of it to really identify that they have been delivered to these locations. It’s a GPS thing and not about house numbering,” she said.
Mrs Edu also disclosed plans to verify the social register of Nigerians and create an accessible database for the public.
“The first thing we want to do is to verify the social register. We must get a database, a base upon which we are going to do the work, and we will put this out there to Nigerians, so that they can hold us accountable,” the minister added.
According to her, President Bola Tinubu’s target is to prevent any Nigerian from living in poverty.
As part of the efforts to achieve this, she disclosed that discussions would take place within two to three weeks with key stakeholders to come up with exact figures to provide for each individual or family in the poverty alleviation project.
“We have a total idea which is according to the action plan of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu. It’s already fully written, however, implementation failure will arise when it is not domesticated and honed by the context where we will be implementing it.
“We will be on the consultative mode, getting across to Nigerians at all levels. The register must be verified and updated, and where there are people who don’t deserve to be there, based on the criteria, they will be taken off the register,” she added.