Conditional cash transfer to resume amid probe

Amid investigation by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) into alleged N100 billion fraud in the Federal Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation and another reported N17 billion malfeasance in the National Social Investment Programme Agency (NSIPA), the suspended conditional cash transfer programme is resuming.

Prompted by the rising cost of living, hunger protests, and free fall of the Naira, among others, the programme is billed to alleviate the sufferings of millions of vulnerable households, especially those slipping below the poverty line nationwide.

The scheme and similar interventions run by the NSIPA were January this year suspended by President Tinubu following above alleged financial fraud.

A Special Presidential Panel, headed by Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Wale Edun, with the Coordinating Minister of Health and Social Welfare, Minister of Budget and Economic Planning, Minister of Information and National Orientation, Minister of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy and Minister of State for Youth was tasked with the responsibility of restoring public confidence in all federal poverty intervention programmes under the NSIPA.

A statement by presidential spokesman, Ajuri Ngelale, explained that the committee is to immediately undertake a comprehensive review and audit of existing financial frameworks and policy guidelines of the NSIPA with a view to implementing a total re-engineering of the financial architecture of the programmes with detailed modification to procedures guiding their implementation.

“President Tinubu anticipates that this Special Presidential Panel will validate the confidence reposed in it by winning back all lost public confidence in these vital programmes over the years, by ushering in a new era of operation based on open and accountable governance frameworks that will prove impervious to abuse and incompetence for the exclusive benefit of disadvantaged households across our nation,” the statement reads in part.