Debate over how Nigeria identifies and supports its poorest citizens has intensified, as stakeholders again questioned the credibility of the National Social Register (NSR) and the broader social investment architecture of the Federal Government.
At a stakeholder forum in Lagos themed “Advancing Social Protection Through the National Social Register (NSR)”, National Coordinator of the National Social Investment Programme Agency (NSIPA), Prof. Badamasi Lawal, described the NSR as a “dynamic national asset” for evidence-based planning, strategic targeting and effective service delivery, insisting no vulnerable Nigerian should be left out of government interventions aligned with President Bola Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda.
However, critics argue that the register, initiated under former President Muhammadu Buhari, has long been dogged by allegations of political capture, opaque targeting and weak accountability. They contend that cash transfers have often appeared as political patronage rather than a rigorously verified safety net, with government agencies reluctant to publish beneficiary data or clear selection criteria.
Despite federal claims that the NSR now covers millions of households and that over ₦400 billion has been disbursed in various phases of conditional cash transfers, concerns over transparency persist. The register’s expansion and verification reportedly cost about $2.2m under a World Bank–supported programme, yet independent access to the underlying data remains limited.
Analysts say a key part of the credibility gap lies in governance. They point to recent corruption probes around NSIPA and the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs—culminating in the suspension of key officials and a temporary freeze of the agency’s accounts—as evidence that the system remains vulnerable to abuse.
Experts at the Lagos forum and policy commentators have urged that the NSR be insulated from partisan control and run with the sort of professional independence once associated with the National Bureau of Statistics under Dr. Yemi Kale, which earned a reputation for publishing data that “spoke truth to power”.
A professionally designed, politics-free social register, they argue, would better target scarce resources to those truly in need, reduce leakages, and support data-driven policy making. Some economists also recommend diverting a larger share of current cash-transfer funds towards stimulating small businesses and job creation, while preserving a tightly targeted safety net for the most vulnerable—such as persons with disabilities, orphans and widows—and gradually expanding upwards as the economy improves.
For now, stakeholders agree on one thing: without a credible, corruption-free social register trusted by the public, Nigeria’s ambitious social protection promises will remain difficult to deliver
