FG Mulls Social Safety Nets For Retirees, Senior Citizens

The Federal Government, on Monday, unveiled plans to launch various social safety net programmes including a community-based health insurance scheme for retirees and old citizens across the country.

In its bid to provide succour for over 2 million poor and vulnerable Senior Citizens already captured in the Social Register, Federal Government has concluded arrangements for the disbursement of COVID-19 Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) to 200,000 Senior Citizens in August 2021.

Speaking on the initiative during the Senior Citizens’ Forum maiden dialogue organised by the National Senior Citizens Center (NSCC), the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, Sadiya Umar Farouq, reiterated the present administration’s resolve towards prioritising the welfare of Senior Citizens.

The Minister, who tasked the Senior Citizens to let their voices be heard through unreserved participation in issues affecting their welfare, said “gone are the days when senior citizens were neglected as challenges of older persons and opportunities that accrue from meeting these challenges are integrated into Nigeria’s development plans.

“In contemporary times, poverty, hunger and COVID-19 pandemic are threatening and, when global efforts are tailored towards the attainment of the sustainable development goals with the mantra of ‘leave no one behind,’ responsible governments are fashioning policy and legal frameworks to ensure the inclusion of its vulnerable population.

“In developing the National Policy on Ageing and establishing the National Senior Citizens Center, the government of His Excellency President Muhammadu Buhari has ensured that the very essential institutions, systems and mechanisms to facilitate the quality of life, economic and social participation of older persons are guaranteed and that the challenges of older persons and the opportunities that accrue from meeting these challenges are integrated into Nigeria’s development plans.

“I am delighted to say that, with the establishment of the National Senior Citizens Center, the concerns of older persons are no longer handled in a discretionary and arbitrary manner, but are now addressed comprehensively, as detailed in the National Senior Citizens Act and the National Policy on Ageing, which is soon to be operationalized by NSCC. The now instituted Older Persons Safety-Net Program, which targets very poor and vulnerable older persons, attest to the commitment of President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration to age-inclusive development,” the Minister

On her part, NSCC Director-General, Dr Emem Omokaro applauded the present administration’s commitment towards the launch of the National Policy on Ageing and legislative framework as well as the establishment of the National Senior Citizen Centre.

“We set out a vision, regardless of the unique group you may belong, from the formal sector or informal sector, you are in the rural area, you are in the urban area, sub-urban centre; whether you are rich, whether you are poor, that vision is a vision that the NSCC has for every senior citizen and it took time to create this.

“We want to be able to see happy Senior Citizens, very happy enjoying their lives, respected, dignified and where your fruition capacity begins to decline and you need long term care, you get the quality care that you need and the person that has been trained to take care of you.”

In the bid to achieve the set objectives, Dr Omokaro unveiled the centre’s plan to engage strategic partnership drawn from various ministries, departments and agencies including the Federal Ministry of Health and National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) for the implementation of health insurance scheme, as well as research-related agencies for satisfactory service delivery that are relevant to various domains mapped out by the Centre.

These include; Income security programmes, social assistant and social safety net, among others.

In his presentation, National Coordinator of National Social Safety-Net Coordinating Office (NASSCO), Mr. Iorwa Atera disclosed that no fewer than 8.5 million poor and vulnerable households have so far been captured in the Social Register, made up of 35 million individuals across the 36 states of the federation and Federal Capital Territory (FCT) and across 717 Local Governments; 86,000 political wards and 96,000 communities across the country.

“This Social Register of 35 million individuals had about over 3% of the Senior Citizens, made up of about 2 million individuals who are Senior Citizens and we can disaggregate this by the location that we find them or register them by their age, gender, educational level, vocation, their status in terms of disability and illness, so that help can reach them.

“Through this register, Federal Government is then designing programmes to attend to the needs of the vulnerable including Senior Citizens. For instance, Decree 1992 provides for a community-based insurance scheme, and now with the Social Register, they are mining from the Social Register especially for the Senior Citizens to give them health insurance to primary healthcare level at least.

“As we know at the advent of COVID-19 the country was locked down, most impacted or affected were the urban poor and so the Senior Citizens, residents in the urban areas were most affected because our Senior Citizens don’t have access to regular income. So from this process, we targeted 200,000 Senior Citizens for the COVID-19 Cash Transfer. The date is ready. The payment starts this month,” he assured.

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