Reps give Tinubu 72 hours to unfreeze accounts of social investment programmes

The house of representatives has asked President Bola Tinubu to mandate Wale Edun, minister of finance, to unfreeze all accounts of the National Social Investment Programmes Agency (NSIPA) within 72 hours.

The lower legislative chamber passed the resolution during plenary on Tuesday.

This was sequel to the adoption of a motion sponsored by Benjamin Kalu, deputy speaker, and 20 other lawmakers.

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 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”.

BACKGROUND

In 2023, former President Muhammadu Buhari enacted a law to establish the NSIP — an agency that has been mired in corruption since the turn of the year.

On January 2, Tinubu suspended Halima Shehu as the chief executive officer (CEO) of NSIPA, over alleged financial malfeasance.

On January 8, the president also suspended Betta Edu as minister of humanitarian affairs and poverty alleviation.

The humanitarian affairs and poverty alleviation ministry supervises the operations of the NSIPA.

On January 12, the president suspended all programmes administered by NSIPA as part of a probe of alleged mismanagement of the agency and its programmes.

On March 13, the house of representatives asked the federal government to resume the implementation of the suspended social investment initiatives.

The senate is considering a bill seeking to place the NSIPA under the supervision of the presidency.

Tinubu has since appointed Badamasi Lawal to replace Shehu.

THE MOTION

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.