President Bola Tinubu yesterday announced a six-week suspension of all the four programmes administered by the National Social Investment Programme Agency (NSIPA).
The suspension was contained in a statement signed by the director of information, office of secretary to the government of the federation, Mr. Segun Imohiosen.
It was gathered that the government took the action following fraud discovered in the agency and the recent arrest of the national coordinator and chief executive officer of NISPA, Ms Halima Shehu for alleged ₦44 billion money laundering.
The statement reads: “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 (the “Programs”) 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.”
