Poverty: Reps Urge FG to Unfreeze Social Investment Account

Poverty: Reps Urge FG to Unfreeze Social Investment Account

The House of Representatives has called on the Federal Government to direct the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Wale Edun, to within 72 hours, unfreeze the accounts of the National Social Investment Agency, given its role in addressing hunger and poverty.

The position of the Green Chamber was a sequel to the adoption of a motion at Tuesday’s plenary sponsored by the Deputy Speaker, Benjamin Kalu, and 20 other lawmakers.

Allegations of corruption and shady deals compelled the President Bola Tinubu-led government to freeze the accounts of the agency, to give room for a total overhauling of its programmes.

While calling for support for the motion on Tuesday, Kalu emphasised that NSIPA oversees critical social intervention programmes such as Grant for Vulnerable Groups, N-Power, the Government Enterprise and Empowerment Programme, Conditional Cash Transfers and the National Home-Grown School Feeding Programme, among others.

He also noted that the Renewed Hope Agenda of the Tinubu-led government emphasises the mandate of the NSIPA to cushion the effect of economic shocks on the poor and the vulnerable.

He said, “The House is disturbed that despite the programmes of NSIPA being vital 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 House is worried that the effort of the government and the laudable programmes of NSIPA were truncated by alleged financial mismanagement by handlers of the programmes leading to the suspension of programmes and freezing of the agency’s account and subsequent investigation by anti-corruption and security agencies.