Okonjo-Iweala Asks World Bank To Help Create Nigerian Data Base

Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala,  has asked for the World Bank’s support in creating a much needed data base to help improve the social safety nets in Nigeria.
She spoke on Sunday at the on-going Spring Meeting of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund in Washington DC.
Okonjo-Iweala  said the social safety nets had helped many countries to reduce poverty and unemployment rates but noted that it could be achieved with effective data base.
“The very important thing for a successful social safety net is targeting, you must have the bases to be able to target those who need help.
“So, I insisted that we don’t have a data base to know who are the poor and what level of income in Nigeria.
“It is not enough to know that 50, 60 or 70 per cent of the population are poor; you need to have data on the poor households because they are the ones to come up and collect the safety net.’’
Okonjo-Iweala said that Brazil had proved successful on social safety net because of its comprehensive data base of the people, which helped in disbursing funds to the right people.
According to the finance minister, Nigeria has yet to get the perfect key to a successful social safety net.
“But we don’t have one that we can rely on and not every State has one. So, I am saying to the World Bank and we are not the only country, help us to build this data base.’’

Continue reading at source