FCT Partners NDID4D To Foster Ecosystem Enrolment

The Nigeria Digital Identification for Development (NDID4D) initiative and the Federal Capital Territory's (FCT) Social Safety Net Programme have agreed to work together on the proposed Pilot Ecosystem Enrollment Project (PEEP).

It was scheduled to start on April 12, according to Mouktar Adamu, the NDID4D External Communication Manager, who signed the announcement.

Adamu said that during a courtesy visit by a group from the NDID4D, Garba Gambo, the State Office Coordination Unit (SOCU-FCT), made the commitment.

“The visit was to intimate SOCU-FCT of its forthcoming enrolment in the FCT, including the poor and vulnerable people, which a primary area of interest to the safety net programme.

“The visit followed a similar one undertaken earlier to the National Social Safety-Nets Coordinating Office (NASSCO), the National Coordinating Office of the programme that oversees the National safety net programme at the federal level."

Solomon Odole, the project's coordinator, stated earlier during the visit that the initiative felt collaboration was necessary to fulfil its goal of ensuring a rise in the number of persons with National Identification Numbers (NIN).

Odole stated that the effort was in line with the National Social Register's collection of information on the poor and vulnerable by the safety net.

He added that the objective complements the NIN's safety net data collection.

"We know you collect data too and hence our need to sit and talk with you", he said.

This, he claimed, would also assist the NDID4D in monitoring a project development objective indicator relating to the SOCU-emphasis FCT's on the poor and the vulnerable.

Odole listed the four main NDID4D components and added that the visit was also in line with the organization's responsibility to manage its stakeholders, particularly in light of the PEEP's implementation.

In his statement, Gambo stated that the safety net programme had mechanisms at all levels, from the federal to the local.

Many of its subjects, he claimed, lacked NINs, therefore any SOCU data mining by the NDID4D would help the programme update its records.

"We have the structure, the workforce, for state and community levels and have covered about 740 Local Government Areas in the country."

In order to facilitate the partnership, he promised to activate the program's Community-based targeting (CBT) and update its Rapid Response Registry (RRR).

The National Coordinating Office of the Social Safety Net Program must be informed of plans for the SOCU-FCT, according to Gambo, who also demanded evidence from the NDID4D.

He emphasised the significance of this since the SOCU-FCT CBT would be required to collaborate closely with the Front End Partners (FEPs) of the NDID4D who would be managing enrollment under the PEEP.