ABUJA, Nigeria (CHATNEWSTV) — The Nigerian government is now using artificial intelligence to identify and reach both rural and urban poor Nigerians as part of efforts to expand its national social register and fight poverty, the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Reduction, Nentawe Yilwatda, has said.
Mr. Yilwatda disclosed this during an interview on Arise TV’s Prime Time programme on Friday, where he outlined President Bola Tinubu’s directive to make the register more inclusive.
“To help someone, you must first know them,” the minister said. “You can’t support people you can’t identify. That’s why we started by validating the social register.”
According to Mr. Yilwatda, the register, which previously covered only the rural poor, has grown from 13 million to 19.7 million individuals.
“The president ordered that we include the urban poor as well. We used satellite imagery to locate urban slums, then base stations and telecom data to identify phone numbers in those locations,” he said.
“AI helped us generate a list of urban poor individuals by verifying those numbers, their access to financial services, and other indicators. So now, the updated social register covers both rural and urban communities, making it more inclusive and reliable.”
The federal government, he said, is targeting 15 million households — about 75 million Nigerians — with its anti-poverty programmes.
“Nigeria has around 43 million households. We’re targeting 15 million with these interventions. Multiply that by an average household size of five, and we’re reaching about 75 million people,” he said.
Mr. Yilwatda also revealed that about 42 percent of Nigerians are suffering from food poverty and emphasized the government’s efforts through conditional cash transfers.
“We need to differentiate between food poverty and multidimensional poverty,” he said. “Food poverty, which focuses solely on access to sufficient food, affects roughly 42% of the population. That’s about 80 million people — or 20 million households.”
“The federal government is targeting 15 million of them. That means over 75% of the food-poor population is being covered through conditional cash transfers.”
Each beneficiary household receives N75,000, he noted, an amount that may seem modest in cities but has a significant impact in rural areas.
“I know N75,000 might seem insignificant to someone living in the city. But in rural areas, it makes a difference,” he said.
According to the minister, a joint study with the World Bank and civil society organisations revealed that 18% of beneficiaries used the funds to start small-scale businesses, 82% to improve food security, and 52% to pay school fees.
“So, while this is not their sole source of income, it is a meaningful supplement that helps cushion the impact of poverty,” he added.
