Senior Citizens: NSCC targets 5 year plan for Data and Welfare
Victoria Ogunrinde
The Director General, National Senior Citizens Center, (NSCC), Emem Omokaro on Monday said the center is set to begin a 5 year implementation plan on data administration for all registered senior citizens across Nigeria.
Speaking in Abuja on Monday at the Senior Citizens’ Forum – Maiden Dialogue Emem stated that the Center is passionate about the data and welfare of the senior citizens and ensure that there needs are met irrespective of their status and diversity.
“Our plan is to engage relevant Ministries, Department and Agencies (MDAs) so that we can fashion out partnership mechanism with them and develop a 5 year strategic implementation plan on administrative data to have a robust data system for all senior citizen”.
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Similarly, Emem noted that dialogue is key in the implementation of the plan as their needs varies in terms of diversity.
“There is no way the center can cater for the citizen without dialogue, even as we deliberate we need to know that they are diverse in term of needs to be catered for.
“We want to be able to see happy and respected citizens with healthcare when the need arises”, she said.
The NSCC DG, said having identified the domains for the senior citizens which include income security, Health and wellbeing, trainings and education for older persons, building senior centres, campaigning about aged people, data system, monitoring and evaluation said the center will engage the constituents and subject matter expert that we will build a framework for creating implementation plans for each domain which will be in the 5 year plan that will capture the diversity of the senior citizens.
She added that the center will also engage the new media by creating support groups in order for them to understand and re-orient them positively that aging is an industry, which has an economic growth by building the capacity of other person to become resourceful.
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Emem explained that older persons are the most abused group, in neglect, verbally and emotionally, thus, the need to fight the war against the abuse.
“We will educate people on what the abuses are, we will create platforms in this direction and use all machineries to champion this course”.
Earlier, the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, Hajia Umar Farouq on her part stated that with the establishment of the National Senior Citizens Center, the concerns of older persons are no longer handled in 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.
Also speaking at the event, National Coordinator of the National Social Safety Net Programme, Mr. Iorwa Akpere noted presently, the social register stands at 8.5 million households made up of 35 million individuals across the 36 states and the FCT and across 717 local government, 86,000 political wards and 96,000 communities across the country.
Akpere disclosed that the social register of 35 million individuals has about 3%-4% of which senior citizens made up of about 2 million of them.
“Through this register, the federal government is attending to the needs of the vulnerable including senor citizens.
“We targeted 200,000 senior citizens for the COVID-19 cash transfer, once the data is ready, we start payment this month”. He added.