Okonjo-Iweala says that is the only way to improve social safety nets in the country
The Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister for the Economy, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, has solicited the World Bank’s support to create a good database that would help improve social safety nets in Nigeria.
Speaking on Sunday at the ongoing Spring Meeting of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund in Washington DC, Okonjo-Iweala said the social safety nets had helped many countries to reduce poverty and unemployment rates.
She however pointed out that it could only be achieved with an effective database.
“The very important thing for a successful social safety net is targeting, you must have the bases to be able to target those who need help,” the Minister said.
“It is not enough to know that 50, 60 or 70 percent of the population is poor; you need to have data on the poor households because they are the ones to come up and collect the safety net.”
Citing Brazil as an example, Okonjo-Iweala said they had successful social safety nets because they had a comprehensive database of the people, which helped in disbursing funds to the right people.
Anambra State governor, Dr. Peter Obi, said the World Bank had so far helped some states to build statistics and some state governments had developed bureaux of statistics that had been backed by the law and properly domesticated.
“This is what the World Bank and other institutions are helping us to upgrade because without that, there’s no way you can work or plan,” he said.
