 I'm very delighted to be part of this historic event to flag off the operations of the federal government's rapid response register, RRR, for the COVID-19 cash transfers. This cash transfer project is a national initiative to build a shock-responsive framework for capturing and registering the urban poor and vulnerable populations across Nigeria. The new register complements the already existing platforms under the World Bank-supported National Social Safety Net Project, the NA SSP. Our government launched the National Social Protection Policy in 2017 to provide the framework for institutionalizing the work that we started since 2016 on reducing extreme poverty in Nigeria, based on our administration's vision to create a comprehensive social security program for the poor and vulnerable, and thereafter, the presidential pledge to lift 100 million Nigerians out of poverty in 10 years. In furtherance of these objectives, the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development was established in August 2019 to coordinate all humanitarian and social protection activities in Nigeria. The National Social Protection Policy established the minimum guarantees for social assistance and social security in Nigeria. It also provided the framework for the implementation of social investment and social safety net programs in the country. Under the NA SSP, Nigeria has been building a social register of its poor and vulnerable populations, starting from the poorest geographies which have been in the largely rural areas. As of 31st December 2020, we have identified and registered about 24.3 million poor and vulnerable individuals in the National Social Register, equivalent to about 5.7 million households. Through this project, we are currently injecting about 10 billion Naira directly into the hands of about 2 million poor and vulnerable households every month. This is about the largest evidence-based effort by any administration on poverty reduction, and its impact on the lives of the poor is huge. By way of improving the livelihoods of beneficiaries through enhanced household purchasing power, smoothing consumption, increasing savings, and acquisition of household assets, and improving the local economy generally. Of course, there are many more ramifications. When the COVID-19 pandemic struck in February 2020, those in the National Social Register, which is an aggregate of all state social registers of the poor and the beneficiaries of the National Cash Transfer Program, were likely rural people. Nonetheless, it quickly became obvious that while the COVID-19 containment action was effective in slowing down the spread of infections, it also impacted the urban informal workers and dwellers, especially those daily wage earners that could not work due to lots of jobs, due to business closures, or restrictions on movement. So from this situation emerged a new set of vulnerable groups of people at risk of falling into poverty. As for this category of people who were not previously captured in the Social Register, the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, working with the NASSP, designed an intervention to rapidly identify register and provide them with circle. Hence, the rapid response register, RRR, was born. The rapid response register is designed to focus mainly on the urban poor wards selected using scientifically validated methods of satellite remote sensing technology, and you already heard quite a bit of that from the coordinator of the program. It also includes machine learning algorithms and big data analysis. This social protection method of targeting is the first strategy to be developed and tested in the sub-Saharan Africa region, and Nigeria will be the first country for its implementation. With the rapid response register, which uses a wholly technology-based approach, we are now primed to achieve an end-to-end digital footprint in cash transfers for the urban poor, which also helps us to achieve our financial inclusion policy under the Enhancing Financial Innovation and Access Program. I must commend, most heartily, the Honourable Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and her team, not only for this innovative effort, but for the discipline and resourcefulness that they have brought into the execution of the project to deliver it so promptly and so well. The groundbreaking success of the rapid response register now emboldens us to achieve our aspiration of a social security program for a minimum of 20 million Nigerians in the next few years. This will be the largest of its kind on the continent. This is, at least from the perspective of this tested approach, now well within our reach. The only constraint, of course, is the funding, which we must look for because, certainly, this country deserves a social security scheme that will not merely alleviate poverty, but also create wealth for the millions of those who are waiting for these opportunities. Honourable Minister, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen, as a testament to the commitment of the Federal Government of Nigeria to creating opportunities for millions of Nigerians to exit poverty with dignity and hope, it is now my special pleasure and privilege to flag off the COVID-19 cash transfer project to the glory of the Almighty God. Thank you very much.