Vice President Kashim Shettima has endorsed the Renewed Hope Baby Support (RHBS) programme, a national human capital development initiative designed to provide every Nigerian child with structured identity registration, healthcare access, and long-term social and economic opportunities. The Vice President stated that the initiative, championed by the North East Development Commission (NEDC), aligns with President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s declaration of 2026 as the Year of the Family and Social Protection.
Senator Shettima spoke on Thursday at the Presidential Villa in Abuja when the management of the NEDC, led by its Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Mohammed Goni Alkali, presented the programme’s execution framework to him. Commending the Commission for what he described as a proactive response to the President’s social protection agenda, Shettima said the RHBS initiative represents a strategic intervention targeted at improving the welfare and future prospects of vulnerable children and families, particularly in the North East.
“As you are aware, Mr President has declared 2026 as the Year of the Family and Social Protection, with clear directives for implementation across all levels of government,” the Vice President said. “I commend the NEDC for taking proactive steps to translate this vision into concrete action, particularly through the Renewed Hope Baby Support programme.”
He described the initiative as timely and strategically aligned with the North East Stabilisation and Development Masterplan. “The RHBS is a very timely and strategic initiative. It sits squarely within the North East Stabilisation and Development Masterplan, aligning perfectly with its three critical pillars: peaceful society, healthy citizens, and an educated populace,” he stated.
The Vice President also called for closer collaboration among the NEDC, the Federal Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, and other relevant government agencies to ensure effective implementation and maximum impact of the programme. He noted that by focusing on children and families, the RHBS initiative would directly impact vulnerable Nigerians while serving as a practical vehicle for implementing President Tinubu’s social protection mandate.
According to Shettima, the programme would also help cushion the effects of ongoing economic reforms through targeted and structured support for families. “This initiative will serve as a strategic palliative that cushions the effects of necessary economic reforms in a dignified and structured manner,” he said. “It demonstrates that while we implement difficult but essential policies, we remain deeply committed to the welfare of our people, especially women and children in the North East.”
The Vice President added that the programme further positions the NEDC as a critical driver of the Renewed Hope Agenda in the region. “This is the kind of focused, results-oriented intervention we expect from our Regional Development Commissions,” he added. Shettima disclosed that details of the programme’s implementation and rollout strategy would be formally unveiled on May 27, 2026, as part of activities marking Children’s Day.
Earlier, Senior Special Assistant to the President on Regional Development and NEDC in the Office of the Vice President, Dr Mariam Masha, said the RHBS programme was conceived as a national human capital infrastructure initiative rather than a conventional social welfare scheme. She explained that although Nigeria records an estimated 7.6 million births annually, less than half of those births are formally registered within the first year, leaving millions of children outside official national records and weakening long-term planning in critical sectors.
“Millions of children begin life outside national visibility, weakening long-term planning across education, health, economic, and social systems,” she said. According to her, the RHBS initiative is designed to ensure that every Nigerian child enters life through a structured pathway linking identity registration, healthcare participation, and long-term opportunity development.
“RHBS is positioned as a structured national programme, not a traditional welfare intervention. It uses milestone-linked support to connect children from birth to formal systems of identity, health, and opportunity,” Dr Masha stated. She added that the programme would serve as an operational framework for translating the President’s directive placing Nigerian families at the centre of governance into measurable outcomes, with emphasis on early childhood development.
Dr Masha stressed that the initiative should not be viewed merely as a social intervention, but as a long-term national operating model for identity inclusion, developmental healthcare participation, and sustainable human capital development. “The necessary infrastructure and political mandate already exist. What is now required is disciplined execution,” she said.
