Nentawe Yilwatda, the minister of humanitarian affairs and poverty reduction, says the federal government is using artificial intelligence (AI) to identify poor Nigerians residing in urban slums.
Speaking on Arise TV Prime Time programme on Friday, the minister said AI has enabled the expansion of the national social register.
He added that the register, which initially targeted only the rural poor, has grown from 13 million to 19.7 million people.
“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,” Yilwatda said.
“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.
“So now, the updated social register covers both rural and urban communities, making it more inclusive and reliable.”
The minister said the federal government is targeting 15 million households — about 75 million individuals — with its anti-poverty programmes.
“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,” Yilwatda said.
