FG Using AI To Identify Poor Nigerians, says Minister

The federal government is leveraging artificial intelligence (AI) to identify poor Nigerians living in urban slums as part of a broader effort to expand the national social register and improve the effectiveness of anti-poverty interventions.

Nentawe Yilwatda, Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Reduction, made the disclosure during an appearance on Arise TV’s Prime Time programme on Friday. He revealed that the register, which previously focused solely on rural communities, has grown from 13 million to 19.7 million individuals following the integration of AI tools and satellite mapping.

“To help someone, you must first know them. You can’t support people you can’t identify,” Yilwatda said. “The president directed us to include the urban poor. So we used satellite imagery to locate urban slums, then telecom base station data to identify residents by phone numbers.”

According to the minister, AI was used to cross-verify these phone numbers based on access to financial services and other poverty indicators. The result, he said, is a more inclusive and accurate database that now captures poor households in both urban and rural areas.

Yilwatda noted that the government’s poverty reduction initiative is targeting 15 million households — an estimated 75 million Nigerians — with conditional cash transfers and other support mechanisms.

“Nigeria has about 43 million households. Targeting 15 million means we’re reaching over 75 million people,” he explained. “We’re prioritizing the food-poor — roughly 42% of the population, or around 80 million people.”

Each selected household receives N75,000 under the programme. While the amount may seem modest to urban dwellers, Yilwatda stressed its significant impact in rural areas.

“Research conducted with the World Bank and civil society shows that 18% of beneficiaries used the money to start nano businesses. Around 82% improved their food security, and 52% used it to pay school fees.”

He added that the shift from emergency aid to sustainable poverty reduction is a key policy direction of the current administration. “We’re not just distributing relief. We’re actively reducing poverty through structural reforms and strategic support,” he said.

Yilwatda also highlighted complementary measures, including student scholarships and N1.5 trillion in agricultural loans facilitated through the Aggregate Bank to boost food security and economic resilience.

“The cost of food has started to stabilize. These interventions are part of a larger effort to address not just the symptoms of poverty, but its root causes,” the minister stated.