House of Representatives has urged President Bola Tinubu to direct Finance Minister Wale Edun to unfreeze the accounts of the National Social Investment Programmes Agency (NSIPA) within 72 hours.
Gatekeepers News reports that NSIPA, established by former President Buhari in 2023, has faced corruption issues this year. Tinubu suspended CEO Halima Shehu on January 2 for alleged financial misconduct and also suspended Minister Betta Edu on January 8. On January 12, all NSIPA programs were halted for a probe into mismanagement. On March 13, the House called for resuming the suspended initiatives, while the Senate is considering placing NSIPA under presidential supervision. Badamasi Lawal has since been appointed to replace Shehu.
The programmes under SIP include N-Power, conditional cash transfer (CCT), government enterprise and empowerment programme, and the home-grown school feeding initiative.
The parliament, during plenary on Tuesday, said unfreezing the accounts of the NSIPA will enable the “smooth” recommencement of all the programmes.
The lower legislative chamber also asked the president to ensure the release of funds to NSIPA for the payment of outstanding stipends owed to
395,731 N-Power beneficiaries nationwide “without further delay”.
This was sequel to the adoption of a motion sponsored by Benjamin Kalu, deputy speaker, and 20 other lawmakers.
Moving the motion, Kalu said despite the importance of the social investment programmes for poverty alleviation, youth empowerment, and economic inclusivity in Nigeria, the agency’s functionality has been hindered due to administrative bottlenecks, insufficient funding, and frozen accounts.
“The smooth operations of the programmes and the fulfilment of the mandate of NSIPA are hindered due to the suspension/ freezing of the accounts of the agency and other administrative bottlenecks, which has remained in force even more than 3 months after the President reconstituted the new
management of NSIPA,” he said.
The deputy speaker said the frozen accounts contradicts Tinubu’s mandate on poverty alleviation, eroding public confidence and “administrative paralysis in fighting poverty”.
“As a result of the suspension of accounts of the NSIPA, the N-Power programme has been so negatively affected that 395,731 beneficiaries are owed outstanding stipends to the tune of N81,315, 440,000 — a fund already captured under the 2023 and 2024 amended Appropriation Acts which will lapse by the year ending 31st December, 2024,” Kalu said.
He said restoring NSIPA’s accounts aligns with the president’s vision, ensuring that poverty alleviation efforts remain effective, efficient, and impactful and that it is essential to act swiftly to resolve this issue to maintain momentum toward the administration’s poverty eradication goals.
The parliament also asked the president to reopen all the warehouses of NSIPA nationwide.
The motion was unanimously adopted when it was subjected to a voice by Tajudeen Abbas, speaker of the house.
Following that, the house agreed to transmit the resolution to the senate for concurrence.
