By News Editor
Assurances came the way of the poor and indigents in Lagos State yesterday, as the government said it is coming up with adequate social protection to rescue them from the jaws of poverty and banish poverty from the state.
The Permanent Secretary Ministry of Economic Planning and Budget (MEPB) Mr Ibrahim Obajomo made this known at the inauguration of the Technical Working Group (TWG) which membership is drawn from about 14 Ministry, Department and Agency (MDAs) with a focus on social functions, at the Dover Hotel, Ikeja, Lagos.
Obajomo said the government is prioritizing and mainstreaming social protection for the poor in order to consolidate the various social interventions ongoing in the state.
The TWG which is to be domiciled in the Social Protection Coordinating Department (SPCD), is aimed at effective targeting and delivery of livelihood supports to the extremely poor and vulnerable households in the state.
Established in 2020, the SPCD, which is domiciled in the Ministry of Economic Planning and Budget, has generated for the state, Single Social Register for the poor, through which social protection initiatives initiated by the government are being driven.
He said: “The mainstreaming of social protection policy implementation shall focus on six major areas among which are social assistance, social care, social insurance, labour market interventions, system strengthening and provision of complementary measures.”
He therefore called on the accounting officers of all MDAs, local government chairmen, corporate organisations, development partners and philanthropists to cooperate with the SPDC/MEPB and embrace the new dispensation promoted by the state government.
“Together, we can build a veritable social protection system that seeks to uplift the poor and vulnerable households by providing them with a life of dignity, improve human capital development, achieve sustainable development goals and march forward in the realization of Lagos State Development Plan (LSDP 2052).”
In her welcome address, SPCD Director, Mrs Oluwakemi Adedeji, said the TWG was created because of the need to tackle poverty in a holistic and systematic way and across different facets, to break the vulnerable away from the yoke of poverty.
According to her, working in conjunction with UNICEF, and other development partners to develop a verifiable social protection system for the state.
She said the members are drawn from the Ministries of Women Affairs and Poverty Alleviation (WAPA), Wealth Creation, Agriculture, and agencies such as Civic Engagement, LASHMA, Vocational Training Board, among others in order to harmonise operational strategies for implementation of social protection.
Representative of the United Nations Children Education Fund (UNICEF), Mr Muhammed Okorie in his goodwill message congratulated the government for coming up with a robust inter-ministerial approach to fight the scourge of poverty. He assured that UNICEF would continue to work with the state government until all nooks and crannies of the state are mapped and social protection and the poor lifted out of poverty.
A social Protection practitioner Dr Junaid Olakitan lauded the government for mainstreaming social protection adding that it will go a long way in motivating social protection specialists to continue to fight for the eradication of all forms of poverty.
Director of Action Health Incorporated (AHI) Dr Umen Essien who represented the Civil Society Organisation (CSO) said the government needed to do more if the project must reach the target and bring people out of poverty.