About

History

The Federal Government of Nigeria has partnered with its development partners in recent years to create social protection instruments to help tackle the high rate of poverty in the country.
In the year 2016, the government rolled out the National Social Safety-Nets Project (NASSP), which was aimed at helping develop national resources that will improve the lives of its citizens while strengthening the role of social protection. This will also help in even resource distribution.

The World Bank in the same year announced that they are helping five million people of the poorest and vulnerable access its safety nets program by 2021, and they gave a $500 million International Development Association (IDA) credit which was approved by the World Bank Group’s Board of Executive Directors.

FG also invested $1.3 billion of its budget to the NASSP to match this fund and the NASSP, the National Social Safety Net Coordinating Office (NASSCO) was established under the Vice President through the supervision of the Special Adviser to the President on Social Investment Program to ensure proper coordination of the initiative.

One of the major mandates of the NASSCO is to build a database of the poor and vulnerable households in the 36 states in the federation and the Federal Capital Territory.

The database is used for planning and decision-making and is available to development partners for social interventions.

The FG also put in place the National Social Protection Policy to guide the coordination the social protection interventions. The policy commits to dedicating national resources for the improvement of the lives of citizens as well as strengthening the roles of social recourses, helping in the broader distribution of resources, poverty reduction, human capital enhancement and promotion of sustainable livelihoods.

The Imo State Operations Coordinating Unit (IMSOCU) was established by the administration of His Excellency, Senator Hope Uzodinma- Governor of Imo State with a core mandate to lay a strong foundation for rigorous and reliable evidence of poor and vulnerable households in Imo State, by generating a reliable and credible Imo State Single Social Register (IMSSR). IMSOCU is charged with the overall coordination, development, and management of the IMSSR.

Mandate

The IMSOCU has a core mandate to lay a strong foundation for rigorous and reliable evidence of poor and vulnerable households in Imo State, by generating a reliable and credible Imo State Single Social Register (IMSSR). 

Mission

The main objective of the IMSOCU is POVERTY and INEQUALITY reduction.

Responsibilities

The IMSOCU is charged with major responsibilities of;

• Establishment and management of the IMSSR

• Partnering with the LGAs for the facilitation of the Community Based Targeting (CBT)

• Identification and registration of the Poor and Vulnerable Households (PVHHs)

• Facilitation of access to Poor and Vulnerable Households for intervention programs

• Educating and giving guidelines on social safety net policies

• Provision of appropriate links between government, development partners, NGOs and private sectors on the social safety nets.

• Sharing of the social single social register data with the IMSOCU.

How We Work

The IMSOCU is headed by a State Coordinator whose main duty is the supervision of the other key officers in the four main departments: State Social Registry (SSR), Management Information System (MIS), Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) and Finance.

The heads of these units have appointed subordinate staff who are technocrats or civil servants. IMSOCU  reports to the state-appointed supervisory authority on a quarterly basis.

There are two desk officers, one for Cash Transfer and the other for State Registry who see to the overall project implementation at the LG level following guidelines provided by the IMSOCU.

The Community-Based Targeting Team (CBTT) are also established in the Local Government Areas to carry out Community-Based Targeting programs in the communities, and the desk officers are specially trained for the expected activities.