The Federal Government has commissioned the National Poverty Intelligence Lab (NPIL), a data-driven platform designed to strengthen the targeting, monitoring, and evaluation of poverty-reduction programmes.
The Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Reduction, Bernard Doro, said the NPIL will be the intelligence backbone of Nigeria’s poverty reduction efforts, as the government seeks to address the plight of an estimated 140 million Nigerians living below the poverty line.
He stated this in Abuja on Wednesday at a workshop and launch of NPIL, organised by the ministry in collaboration with Innovations for Poverty Action (IPA).
Doro disclosed that Nigeria faces one of the most complex poverty challenges in the world, with about 140 million people living below the poverty line.
He, however, noted that the scale and depth of the poverty challenge were staggering but surmountable.
In his words, “Today is not simply the launch of a project, it is the ignition of a national reform journey that transforms how Nigeria understands, responds to, and ultimately reduces poverty as care.
“Nigeria faces one of the most complex poverty challenges in the world today. Recent estimates indicate that approximately 140 million Nigerians live below the poverty line.
“The scale and depth of this challenge are staggering, but they are not insurmountable. What this moment demands is not more of the same. It demands systems, intelligence, evidence-driven leadership, and above all, coordinated and accountable action.”
On the importance of the initiative, the minister said: “For many years, our interventions have been driven by assumptions rather than evidence. Sometimes by politics rather than data, and by silos rather than systems.
“The National Poverty Intelligence Lab changes that. It gives us the analytical infrastructure to ask the right questions, find credible answers, and hold ourselves accountable for results. Data is not a bureaucratic requirement; it is a strategic national asset.
“The monitoring, evaluation, and learning and data systems diagnostic exercise that will identify institutional strengths, expose critical gaps, assess systemic capacities, and provide a clear roadmap for building a modern integrated evidence architecture.
“The goal is not data for its own sake. The goal is decision-making that is faster, smarter, and more responsive to the realities on the ground. Realities that 140 million lives face every single day.
“The establishment of the National Poverty Intelligence Lab is not merely a technical exercise. It is simultaneously a governance reform, an accountability reform, a systems reform, and ultimately a poverty reduction reform.
“Poverty cannot be reduced through assumptions. It cannot be solved through scattered interventions, operating without coordination or accountability.
“Through the One Humanitarian, One Poverty Response System (OHOPRS), we are building systems. Through the National Poverty Intelligence Lab, we are building the intelligence.”
Earlier, the Country Representative of Innovations for Poverty Action, Mrs. Fumi Ayeni, said the collaboration with the ministry would help policymakers better understand the needs of poor and vulnerable populations while reducing duplication in intervention programmes.
“Getting people out of poverty starts with everybody. This collaboration will help policymakers build a legacy that can significantly reduce poverty in Nigeria,” she said.
Ayeni noted that the workshop would provide stakeholders with an opportunity to develop strategies for designing and implementing more impactful poverty reduction initiatives.
