The Federal Government, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the German government have launched a mobile service delivery initiative to bring essential services to hard-to-reach communities, amid growing displacement caused by insecurity and natural disasters.
The initiative comes as nearly 64,000 Nigerians have fled their homes and crossed into neighbouring Niger Republic since the beginning of 2026 to escape violence involving Islamist militants and armed criminal gangs.
UNHCR disclosed this in a report monitored on Radio France International (RFI) Hausa Service, noting that about 327,500 Nigerians were already seeking refuge in Niger, which hosts more than 500,000 refugees and asylum-seekers.
The agency added that several hundred other Nigerians had reportedly crossed into Benin Republic.
According to UNHCR, most of the new arrivals in Niger settled in Diffa and Tahoua, with more than 23,000 people, over two-thirds of them children, arriving in Diffa since January.
It warned that many displaced families were living in makeshift shelters without adequate food, clean water and healthcare, amid rising cases of malnutrition and respiratory infections.
The agency further disclosed that only about five per cent of Nigerians who arrived in Niger this year had been formally registered, limiting their access to humanitarian assistance and essential services.
It appealed for $11.4m to support its response in Niger, Nigeria and Benin, including $2m for urgent food, water, shelter, healthcare and protection needs.
Meanwhile, the mobile service delivery initiative is expected to address documentation and identify challenges facing an estimated 3.7 million Nigerians displaced by conflict, insecurity and natural disasters.
Under the programme, 10 specially equipped mobile centres have been handed over to selected state governments to provide National Identification Numbers, birth certificates, Bank Verification Numbers, SIM registration, bank accounts and enrolment in the National Social Register.
Tagged One Motor, Plenty Services, the initiative is designed to bring essential government services closer to internally displaced persons, refugees and vulnerable populations in remote communities.
Speaking at the handover ceremony, the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Reduction, Dr Bernard Doro, said the intervention would address the exclusion of vulnerable citizens who struggle to access government services because of distance, displacement and lack of identification.
“For millions of our citizens, the problem is not merely that services do not exist. The problem is that those services most often do not reach them,” the minister said.
He added, “They are invisible to the very system that has been designed to care for them. So today, we are changing the narrative. We are changing the direction of travel. When people cannot reach essential services, we must bring those services directly to them.”
Doro described identity documentation as a critical requirement for accessing economic opportunities, government assistance and social protection.
“This matters because ID is the first step out of poverty. You cannot be paid if you cannot be identified. You cannot be protected if you cannot be counted. Every NIN issued and every account opened from these vehicles is a person moving from the margins into the system,” he said.
The minister, however, warned beneficiary states against allowing the vehicles to become abandoned assets, stressing the need for proper maintenance and regular deployment.
“Today, we hand you more than vehicles. We hand you a responsibility. These units must not sit in government car parks. They must be fueled, maintained, secured and kept on the road, reaching the last camp, the last village and the last family,” he said.
