PRESIDENT Bola Tinubu has halted all programmes managed by the National Social Investment Programme Agency (NSIPA).
The President removed Halima Shehu as the CEO of NSIPA on January 2 due to alleged financial malfeasance and placed Betta Edu, the minister of humanitarian affairs and poverty alleviation on administrative leave on January 8.
Edu’s ministry oversees NSIPA and is under scrutiny after a memo requesting Oluwatoyin Madein, the accountant-general of the federation, to transfer N585 million to a private account.
Segun Imohiosen, director of information at the office of the secretary to the government of the federation (SGF),stated that the suspension of the NSIPA programmes is part of an ongoing investigation into the management of the agency and its programmes.
“All four (4) Programmes administered by NSIPA, viz; N- Power Programme, Conditional Cash Transfer Programme, Government Enterprise and Empowerment Programme and Home Grown School Feeding Programme have been suspended for a period of six (6) weeks in the first instance.
“President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has also raised significant concerns regarding operational lapses and improprieties surrounding payments to the Programs’ beneficiaries.
“He has therefore constituted a ministerial panel to conduct a thorough review of the Agency’s operations with a view to recommending necessary reforms of the NSIPA.
“During the period of this suspension, all NSIPA-related activities, including but not limited to all distributions, events, payments, collaborations and registrations are now frozen.
“The President wishes to assure the stakeholders and all Nigerians that his administration remains committed to a swift and unbiased process that will ensure that, going forward social intervention programmes will work exactly as intended, to the benefit of the most vulnerable Nigerians,” the statement reads.