A policy analyst and public affairs commentator, Deolu Oyebode, has called for greater transparency and effective data management in the implementation of the Federal Government’s $1 billion HOPE-SP programme in Nigeria.
Oyebode warned that the initiative could suffer the same fate as previous poverty intervention schemes if the government fails to address political interference, weak monitoring and poor identification of beneficiaries.
He made the remarks on Monday while speaking on Adamimogo 105.1FM’s current affairs programme, Inside Scoop.
Oyebode said the success of HOPE-SP should not be measured by its branding or the size of its funding, but by its ability to provide sustainable economic empowerment and withstand the challenges that undermined similar programmes in the past.
He noted that Nigeria had implemented several poverty alleviation initiatives since the 1980s, including the Better Life for Rural Women programme under the Ibrahim Babangida administration, the Family Support Programme under Sani Abacha, the National Poverty Eradication Programme, NAPEP, and the Subsidy Reinvestment and Empowerment Programme, SURE-P.
He also cited interventions introduced during the Muhammadu Buhari administration, including TraderMoni, FarmerMoni and MarketMoni, as well as COVID-19 palliatives.
According to him, many of these interventions were weakened by politicisation, poor monitoring and the absence of reliable data to determine who genuinely qualified for assistance.
Oyebode questioned how the Federal Government intended to convince Nigerians that HOPE-SP would be different from previous programmes, particularly amid claims that about N600 billion had been distributed to 10 million households over the past three years.
He said the government should publish verifiable information on previous beneficiaries and demonstrate how the new programme would prevent duplication while ensuring that assistance reaches genuinely vulnerable Nigerians.
“Are the people who are assessing these funds the right persons to assess?” he asked, alleging that some people who were already earning salaries had benefited from previous government intervention schemes.
Oyebode, however, acknowledged that some federal interventions had produced identifiable beneficiaries, including student loan recipients, healthcare workers, school feeding beneficiaries and farmers who accessed government-supported facilities.
He said the major problem was not necessarily that Nigerians were not benefiting from government interventions, but that there was no effective system for identifying, reconciling and verifying beneficiaries.
The analyst described the absence of a reliable national database as one of Nigeria’s major development challenges, saying it affects economic planning, budgeting and national security.
He welcomed efforts towards an integrated identification and address system, including the use of the National Identification Number, NIN, Bank Verification Number, BVN, and other digital identifiers.
According to him, a properly integrated database would enable government to know who it was planning for, identify genuine beneficiaries and track the movement of public funds.
Oyebode also linked the development of a reliable address system to Nigeria’s planned expansion of postcodes, saying the ability to connect individuals to verified addresses would strengthen governance and improve public service delivery.
He argued that Nigeria should ultimately develop a single, interoperable identity system capable of connecting an individual’s financial, residential and other relevant government records without unnecessary duplication.
He added that a stronger data system would also assist security agencies in combating financial crimes by making it easier to trace transactions and follow financial trails.
“Money has legs. Money makes noise. There is no way money is passing; you can trace money,” Oyebode said, arguing that following the movement of funds could provide investigators with important leads in tackling crime.
He said the Federal Government appeared to be moving in the right direction with efforts to establish a more reliable database, but stressed that the system must be properly integrated, maintained and accessible for effective planning.
Oyebode maintained that the ultimate test of HOPE-SP would be whether it could move beyond one-off financial assistance and create a sustainable pathway towards economic and financial independence for vulnerable Nigerians.
