Kaduna state has so far registered 1.2 million people under its Social Register scheme aimed at mainstreaming the underprivileged and underserved into the financial services sector, Governor Uba Sani has disclosed.
He said that another 1.3 million citizens of the state of adult age would also be captured under the scheme in the next five months.
Governor Uba Sani said that there was no way government could successfully attack poverty if it did not reduce the level of people that were financially excluded from access to the bank.
He said that it was a realization of the need to open up the financial services sector to the poor, the underprivileged and the un-banked segment of the population that he signed the Executive Order as his first act as Governor which aim was to capture and bring at least 2.5 million of the adult age in the state who were financially excluded from mainstream financial sector into the system.
Governor Sani said that as chairman of Senate Committee on Banking, Insurance and Financial Institutions of the 9th Senate, he was privileged to know that the national Social Register was not up to date therefore many states in the federation including Kaduna would not have access to financial interventions by the government that is why he undertook to update the Social Register in Kaduna so that financial interventions should go to the right people for effect.
The Governor who was speaking on a public affairs programme of Arise Television said that at the end of the registration process in the state, government would be equipped with data and statistics of the needy and vulnerable in the state.
He said that it was imperative for the government to embark on the financial literacy campaign to convince people of the credibility of government measures.
“You need to urge them to be captured”, he added.
Governor Sani who further explained that a lot of people in the rural areas were apprehensive over welfare programmes of the government because “they feel that they are not benefiting from most of these interventions” also stressed the need to ensure that those people were involved in all such programmes as a way of effectively raising their living standard.
