Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Reduction, Nentawe Yilwatda, says the federal government is leveraging artificial intelligence (AI) and advanced data analytics to identify poor Nigerians living in urban slums as part of its renewed push to combat poverty.
Speaking on Arise TV Prime Time on Friday, Yilwatda revealed that the AI-driven approach has enabled the federal government to expand and validate the national social register, which now includes both rural and urban populations.
“To help someone, you must first know them. You can’t support people you can’t identify. That’s why we started by validating the social register,” the minister said.
He explained that the register, originally designed to cover only rural poor, has grown from 13 million to 19.7 million individuals, following President Bola Tinubu’s directive to include urban slum dwellers.
“The president ordered that we include the urban poor as well. We used satellite imagery to locate urban slums, then base stations and telecoms data to identify phone numbers in those locations.
“AI helped us generate a list of urban poor individuals by verifying those numbers, their access to financial services, and other indicators,” he explained.
According to Yilwatda, the enhanced register now serves as a foundation for more targeted, inclusive, and data-backed anti-poverty programmes.
He disclosed that the federal government is aiming to support 15 million households — representing approximately 75 million Nigerians — through various interventions.
“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.
Part of the interventions, Yilwatda said, includes conditional cash transfers to food-poor households to address both food and multidimensional poverty.
“We need to differentiate between food poverty and multidimensional poverty. Multidimensional poverty includes a lack of access to education, clean water, healthcare, and financial services. Food poverty, which focuses solely on access to sufficient food, affects roughly 42% of the population,” the minister said.
“If you take 42% of 200 million, that’s about 80 million people. Divide that by an average household size of five, and you have roughly 20 million households affected.
“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 targeted household, he said, receives N75,000, a sum that may seem modest to city dwellers but delivers meaningful relief in rural areas.
“I know 75,000 might seem insignificant to someone living in the city. But in rural areas, it makes a difference,” he noted.
“We conducted a joint research project with the World Bank and some civil society organisations. It showed that up to 18% of recipients were able to start nano or small-scale businesses with that money.
“About 82% used the funds to improve food security. And 52% were able to pay school fees for their children.
“So, while this is not their sole source of income, it is a meaningful supplement that helps cushion the impact of poverty.”
Beyond cash transfers, Yilwatda said the Tinubu administration has launched structural initiatives to address long-term poverty and food insecurity.
“The cost of food this year has stabilised, and food inflation has reduced. The government has introduced several measures to address this,” he stated.
“For example, student scholarships have been offered to ensure that those who have fallen below the poverty line can still access education.
“The government has also made N1.5 trillion available through the aggregate bank for farmers. This will allow them to access loan schemes, boost agricultural production, and enhance food security.”
He argued that the current administration’s focus has shifted from short-term humanitarian relief to strategic poverty eradication.
“Poverty alleviation reduces the pain; poverty reduction moves people out of poverty entirely. Until now, the focus was mainly on humanitarian interventions — relief materials, food distribution, and cash transfers. But that’s not enough. We’re shifting towards actually reducing poverty,” he said.
