The Nigerian government has introduced a new $1 billion social protection initiative, the Household Prosperity and Empowerment Social Protection Project, HOPE-SP, expected to reach roughly 7.6 million vulnerable citizens nationwide.
First Lady Senator Oluremi Tinubu formally unveiled the initiative during an event at the State House Banquet Hall in Abuja, alongside four related programmes aimed at reinforcing the country’s humanitarian response and poverty-reduction efforts.
Speaking under the theme “From Palliatives to Pathways,” she described the initiatives as a meaningful step toward improving conditions for vulnerable individuals, families, and communities across Nigeria.
The other components unveiled at the event were the One-Humanitarian-One Poverty Response System, OHOPRS, an Emergency Cash Transfer Programme, a Ministerial Blueprint from the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Reduction, and a new publication called Humanity First Magazine.
Tinubu linked the timing of the rollout to the broader economic reforms being pursued by President Bola Tinubu’s administration, noting that as those reforms take hold, many households still need additional support given the country’s population size and resource constraints.
She explained that HOPE-SP is designed to improve how vulnerable households are identified and understood, pairing immediate stabilization support with longer-term pathways toward recovery and independence.
On OHOPRS, she said the platform would create a unified national system for coordinating humanitarian response, social protection, and poverty-reduction efforts, reducing duplication across agencies while maintaining shared registries to track households as they move toward economic inclusion.
Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Reduction, Dr. Bernard Doro, said the initiatives represent a new institutional framework shifting government strategy from reactive palliative measures to proactive empowerment.
He noted that while reforms such as the removal of fuel subsidies and the unification of the foreign exchange market have strengthened government revenue and investor confidence, protecting citizens from economic shocks remains essential.
Doro pointed to fragmentation as a longstanding weakness in Nigeria’s social intervention landscape, with agencies often operating in isolation, leading to overlapping support for some beneficiaries while others receive none.
Under the new system, he said, vulnerable households will be assessed individually and tracked along a “poverty graduation pathway” toward economic inclusion, supported by unified data systems, digital infrastructure, and closer coordination across government levels.
He also announced the creation of a National Poverty Intelligence Lab, with success to be measured by outcomes, households lifted out of poverty, rather than by volume of aid distributed.
Minister of Budget and Economic Planning, Senator Atiku Bagudu, emphasized that effective social protection requires collaboration across all levels of government.
He tied the initiative to the administration’s target of building a $1 trillion economy by 2030, stressing that growth must reach ordinary Nigerians, including through a ward-level development programme covering the country’s 8,809 wards.
He added that global instability, including conflicts affecting international markets, makes strong social safety nets increasingly necessary, and that Nigeria’s challenge lies less in a shortage of resources than in better coordinating the programmes and funding already available.
Also speaking, Borno State Governor Babagana Zulum praised the initiative, noting that lasting security in regions affected by insurgency depends on addressing root causes such as poverty and inequality, not just immediate humanitarian relief.
