The Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Budget and National Planning,  Mr Olajide Odewale, has called on states that are yet to domesticate the National Social Protection Policy (NSPP) to do so.

Odewale said this in a statement signed by Mrs Victoria Agba-Attah, the Director in-Charge of Press in the ministry on Monday in Abuja.

Agba-Attah said that the permanent secretary made the call at a stakeholders meeting on presentation of the guidelines to domesticate the NSPP and Other Strategic Documents toward its implementation.

The permanent secretary urged the states to domesticate NSPP so that it could be sustained after the withdrawal of federal support.

He commended the Federal Executive Council for approving the NSPP.

Odewale also appreciated the role the Special Adviser to the President on Social Intervention Programme (SIP), Mrs Maryam Uwais played in the implementation of some of the strategies identified in the policy.

He pledged that the ministry would share the draft guidelines of the National Social Protection Policy with states for domestication.

Odewale listed some of the challenges confronting the country to include increased incidences of malnutrition, forced labour and multi-dimensional poverty and insurgency.

He said the challenges had sent some families into deeper poverty and communal crises.

According to him, the ministry, in collaboration with UNICEF has embarked on providing evidence-based reports that will help government make informed decisions/policies geared toward reducing extreme poverty and vulnerabilities.

In her goodwill message, the Special Adviser to the President on Social Protection, Uwais commended the stakeholders for their support in ensuring that the Social Protection Policy came into being.

She stated that the School Feeding Programme of the SIP had empowered farmers and also brought poverty level to the lowest level.

Uwais said that only two states had domesticated the National Social Protection Policy.

She, however, called on other states to domesticate it in order to realise its full objectives.