The National Social Safety-Net Coordinating Office
About NASSCO
The National Social Safety-Net Coordinating Office (NASSCO) was established in 2016 by the Government of Nigeria in partnership with the World Bank to strengthen social safety nets and social protection system in Nigeria as a core strategy to help end extreme poverty and to promote shared prosperity. The core mandate of NASSCO therefore is to lay a strong foundation of rigorous and reliable evidence of poor and vulnerable households in Nigeria, by building a National Social Register (NSR), as well as coordinate, refine and integrate the social safety-net programs into social protection systems, while ensuring policy coherence. Social safety-nets are part of broader social protection systems comprising non-contributory transfers in cash or in kind, designed to provide support for the poor and vulnerable. Social safety-nets play a number of important roles. For example, they help alleviate poverty, food insecurity, and malnutrition; they contribute by reducing inequality and boosting shared prosperity; they support households in coping with shocks; they help build human capital and connect people to job opportunities; and they are an important factor in shaping social contract between the government and citizens.
OBJECTIVES
- Integrating, harmonising and coordinating social safety nets program
- Provide guidance on the framework for administration and management systems for supporting the poor and vulnerable
- Ensuring policy coherence in the social protection sector
POLICIES & PRINCIPLES
- Protection Policy:The National Social Safety Nets Project (NASSP) is set within the wider real of the Nigerian National Social Protection Policy, in which social safety nets are part of the broader social protection system.
- System Building Blocks : The NASSP, therefore, provides system building blocks that allow the Government to target and deliver a range of programs to poor and vulnerable households (PVHH) more effectively and efficiently through the dynamic use of the National Social Registry (NSR).
- System Building Blocks :The NASSP, therefore, provides system building blocks that allow the Government to target and deliver a range of programs to poor and vulnerable households (PVHH) more effectively and efficiently through the dynamic use of the National Social Registry (NSR).
- Gender Policy : NASSP also supports the Nigeria Gender Policy, which names social protection as a key sector for promoting gender equality and mainstreaming gender in development interventions.
Achievements (2023 – 2025)
1. National Social Register (NSR)
| Item | Status / Outcome |
|---|---|
| National Social Register | Successfully built and operational |
2. Government Restructuring of NASSP-SU
- Households increased from 10.2 million to 15 million
- Payment duration reduced from 6 months to 3 months
- Integration of NIN and BVN into NSR database
- Digital payments via bank accounts and wallets
- Integrated and fully digitalized management information system
3. NIN Integration Drive (Devices & Training)
| Activity | Outcome |
|---|---|
| NIN Devices Procurement | 1,000 devices procured for states |
| TOT Training | 185 participants trained across 36 states & FCT |
| Step-Down Training | 3,870 LGA officials trained nationwide |
| Real-Time Field Data Collection | 3,141 households captured in 2 hours; 86 NIN enrollments completed |
4. NIN Registration Drive / NSR Update (Ongoing)
| Indicator | Value |
|---|---|
| Updated Household Records | 1,585,407 households |
| Reported NINs | 2,379,519 reported |
| Validated NINs | 1,628,587 validated by NIMC |
| NIN Enrolment (NIMC Devices) | 7,757 enrollments across 36 states & FCT |
| Eligible Households for Cash Transfer | 758,774 households (2,691,760 individuals) |
5. Strategic Partnerships
Service Level Agreements (SLAs) were signed with major NIMC Front-End Partners to complement the deployment of 1,000 NIMC devices nationwide.
Speed is important, but our focus is building a reliable National Social Register for Nigeria with accurate and high-quality data. By making sure the information is correct and properly checked, we can create a register that is fair and useful. This will help build trust, improve decisions, and support lasting social programs.