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Joseph Inokotong, Abuja
The Federal Government has so far disbursed $76,538,530 from the Abacha loot to beneficiaries of the National Cash Transfer Programme, a component of the National Social Investment Programme (N-SIP).
This is in addition to $27,099,028 from the International Development Association (IDA)/World Bank Credit that were disbursed from August/September 2018 to the Sept/Oct payment cycle.
This was disclosed in Port Harcourt, Rivers State on Monday by the Special Adviser to the President on Social Investments, Mrs. Maryam Uwais, at a two-day Experts’ Training and Advocacy on Tracing and Recovery of Illicit Funds and Assets organised by the Human Environmental Development Agenda (HEDA).
Mrs. Uwais, who explained this in a statement by Justice Tienabeso Bibiye, Communications Manager, National Social Investment Office (NSIO), said the Federal Government, through NSIO, has been channelling the recovered Abacha loo” and the International Development Association IDA/World Bank Credit towards programmes and policies designed to address the plight of poor and vulnerable Nigerians.
Mrs Uwais listed the key achievements of the Cash Transfer Programme funded with the Abacha loot and IDA loan facility to include “enrollment and payment of 620, 947 beneficiaries across 29 States, N567,429,471, 30 saved by beneficiaries in 17 states from their monthly five thousand naira stipends and 3,695 trained to support beneficiaries.”
She said the funds, which are specifically being disbursed to beneficiaries of the National Cash Transfer Programme (a component of the National Social Investment Programme N-SIP), is a gesture that is positively changing the fortunes of many Nigerians who find themselves below the poverty line, based on the data collated in the communities and hoisted on the National Social Register (comprising each of the state social registers).
The statement quoted the Presidential aide as saying “from the August/Sept 2018 to the Sept/Oct payment cycle, the total cumulative value so far disbursed from the Abacha loot is $76,538,530, and $27,099,028 from the IDA credit.”
She said the decision to distribute the Abacha loot and IDA funds to poor and Vulnerable citizens, who are mined from a National Social Register (NSR), collated by the National Social Safety Net Coordinating Office (NASSCO), was reached by the Swiss government, the World Bank and the Federal Government of Nigeria, to ensure that the funds are well utilised and not diverted to private pockets, as was the case in the past.
According to Mrs. Uwais, “in December 2014, a Swiss Judge gave a Forfeiture Order to the effect that monies ($322.5m) recovered from the family of late General Abacha would be returned to Nigeria, one of the conditions being that the World Bank would be involved in monitoring disbursements therefrom. Presumably, this was as a consequence to the opaqueness that surrounded the application of recovered funds.
“It is common knowledge that the funds from the Abacha loot (as is often termed) and the World Bank IDA credit are being utilised monthly through transfers to our cash transfer beneficiaries, through the operations of the National Social Investment Office, originally under the auspices and supervision of the Vice President of the FGN, and now operating from the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development”.
