By Oladisun Amosun
The House of Representatives yesterday through a motion heavily supported by members at plenary urged President Bola Tinubu to ensure mandate the Minister of Finance to within 72 hours unfreeze all accounts of the National Investment Programmed Agency NSIPA to enable the smooth recommencement of all the Agency’s social intervention programmes.
A motion chiefly sponsored by the Deputy Speaker Rep Benjamin Okezie Kalu and twenty others also called for the President’s intervention in ensuring the release of funds to the agency for payment of outstanding stipends owed the 3(5,731 N-Power beneficiaries nationwide without further delay.
The high-powered sponsorship tea which included sprinklings of the House principal officers and ranking members also mandated the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Disaster Management to remove all administrative bottlenecks hindering the smooth operations of NSIPA
NSIPA oversees critical intervention programmes such as grants for vulnerable groups, N-Power, the Government Enterprise and Empowerment Programme GEEP, Conditional Cash Transfers CCT and the Nation’s Home-Grown School Feeding Programme NHGSFP
The Deputy Speaker in the opening debate noted that the Renewed Hope agenda of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu-led government gives emphasis to the mandate of NSIPA to cushion the effect of economic shocks on the poor and the vulnerable.
“Despite the Programmes’ vital importance to poverty alleviation, its functionality has been hindered due to insufficient funds occasioned by administrative bottlenecks and frozen accounts”
Kalu expressed worries that government’s programmes and NSIPA we’re truncated by alleged financial mismanagement by handlers if the programmes leading to the suspension of Programmes’ and freezing of the agency’s account and subsequent investigation by anti-corruption and security agencies.
Members in their support for the motion said three months after the president reconstituted a new management for NSIPA was enough time for the finance minister to unfreeze the agency’s accounts and allow the social empowerment programmes on stream again.
The House was of the opinion that restoring NSIPA’s account 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 to issues of poverty alleviation.
