In a bid to ensure the well-being of the citizenry, the House of Representatives has moved to uncover the whereabouts of more than ₦30 billion recovered during the Federal Government’s 2024–2025 investigation into alleged financial infractions at the National Social Investment Programme Agency (NSIPA).
The lawmakers during plenary session presided over by the Deputy Speaker, Dr. Benjamin Kalu, on Tuesday, warned that the continued withholding of the funds is crippling several poverty-alleviation initiatives across the country.
This followed the adoption of a motion, sponsored by Rt. Hon. Saidu Musa Abdullahi (Bida/Gbako/Katcha Federal Constituency, Niger State), who raised serious concerns over the fate of funds recovered from Deposit Money Banks and Payment Service Providers, including allocations for TraderMoni, MarketMoni, FarmerMoni, and Grants for Vulnerable Groups.
Abdullahi reminded lawmakers that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu had suspended NSIPA operations on January 8, 2024, to allow for a sweeping investigation into alleged financial misconduct.
The investigation reportedly uncovered and froze billions of naira belonging to the agency. However, despite the President lifting the suspension on 21 January 2025, NSIPA has been unable to resume full operation because the recovered funds have allegedly not been remitted to its Treasury Single Account (TSA).
The lawmaker warned that the delay in releasing the funds threatens the core pillars of the Renewed Hope Agenda, slowing down poverty-reduction programmes, crippling small-scale enterprises, worsening hardship in rural and urban areas, and eroding public confidence in government-led social protection efforts.
“Millions of vulnerable Nigerians who depend on these interventions are being exposed to prolonged socioeconomic distress,” he said, stressing that uncertainty over the custodial status of the funds poses “serious fiscal and institutional risks.”
The House expressed deep concern that the social investment programmes—designed to support vulnerable households, petty traders, farmers, schoolchildren, and low-income women—remain stalled despite the conclusion of the government-ordered investigation.
The House thereby resolved to constitute an Ad-hoc Committee to probe the total funds recovered from NSIPA, determine their current location, identify those holding them, and establish reasons for the delay in their release.
The Committee is also mandated to engage all relevant agencies and secure a clear implementation and disbursement plan from NSIPA on how the funds would be utilised once released.
The committee is expected to report back to the House within four weeks for further legislative action, as lawmakers push to fast-track the restart of the social intervention schemes and deliver urgent relief to millions of Nigerians.
