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Osinbajo not involved in disbursement of funds for Social Investment Programmes – Official

The National Social Investment Office (NSIO) has said that contrary to
rumours, the office of Vice President was not involved in financial
transactions or the disbursement of funds for the National Social
Investment Programmes (N-SIPs)
A statement by the NSIO Communications Manager, Justice Bibiye, said
that the Ministry of Budget and National Planning is in charge of all
matters regarding financing, budgeting, procurement and disbursement
of funds allocated and released for the N-SIPs.
According to the statement, the N-SIPs, which involves four broad
programmes (N-Power, Conditional Cash Transfers, National Home-Grown
School Feeding and Government Enterprise and Empowerment Programmes),
are uniquely targeted towards different subgroups of Nigerians for
empowerment.
“The Steering Committee for the NSIO, chaired by the Vice President,
supervises the implementation of the SIPs, The Steering Committee
comprises 9 Ministers, including that of Finance; Education; Health;
Agriculture, Trade and Investment, Youth and Sports, Women Affairs;
Labour and Productivity; Information; with the Ministry of Budget and
National Planning as the Secretariat. The Steering Committee meets
regularly for updates, to review, advise, guide and approve the
processes of the N-SIPs,” it said.
“Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) beneficiaries are identified by
members of the communities themselves, through a tripartite method,
which includes technology, for objectively and scale. At commencement,
the World Bank community-based targeting process was adopted to assure
of community ownership of the process.
“The Bank of Industry (BOI) manages the Government Enterprise and
Empowerment Programme (GEEP) which provides collateral and
interest-free financial support to businesses at the bottom of the
financial pyramid, through its MarketMoni, FarmerMoni and TraderMoni
schemes. The payment process is also transparent”.
It explained that the Vice President Yemi Osinbajo only goes round
markets in the states where the TraderMoni scheme is launched to
engage with beneficiaries, but he is not involved in the disbursement
of loans, whether in cash or through cash transfers.
The statement reads in part: “The funds allocated and released for the
financing of the National Social Investment Programmes (N-SIPs) of the
Buhari administration have been domiciled in the Ministry of Budget
and National Planning from inception, and not in the Office of the
Vice President or anywhere in the Presidency.
“The decision was taken very early in the implementation of the N-SIPs
when President Muhammadu Buhari asked Vice President Yemi Osinbajo,
SAN, to oversee the schemes. The Vice President then instructed that,
while the coordination of the scheme would be led by the Presidency
through the National Social Investment Office (NSIO) under the Office
of the Vice President (OVP), all matters regarding financing,
budgeting, procurement and disbursement should be done by the Ministry
of Budget and National Planning.
Consequently, that Ministry commenced the management of the financial
components of the N-SIPs. The Ministry also serves as the Secretariat
of the Steering Committee that supervised the programme coordination,
also responsible for presenting memos about the schemes each time that
was required at the Federal Executive Council.
“This clarification is important amidst insinuations in some quarters
regarding the amounts budgeted and released for N-SIPs, following
media reports on the alleged involvement of the Vice President in
financial matters. It can be categorically said that His Excellency,
the VP Yemi Osinbajo has never been involved in any of such financial
transactions.

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