President Bola Tinubu has suspended all administered programmes by the National Social Investment Programme Agency (NSIPA).
The director of information in the office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Segun Imohiosen, announced the suspension in a statement on Friday.
The action is a response to the ongoing investigation of alleged misappropriation in the agency’s management and its programmes.
All four programmes administered by NSIPA—N-Power Programme, Conditional Cash Transfer Programme, Government Enterprise and Empowerment Programme, and Home Grown School Feeding Programme—are suspended for six weeks initially.
Tinubu has expressed concerns about operational lapses and improprieties surrounding payments to the programmes’ beneficiaries.
Tinubu has constituted a ministerial panel to review the agency’s operations, recommending necessary reforms thoroughly. All NSIPA-related activities, including distributions, events, payments, collaborations, and registrations, are frozen during this suspension.
The president assured stakeholders and Nigerians that his administration is committed to a swift and unbiased process to ensure that social intervention programmes will work as intended for the benefit of vulnerable Nigerians.
Halima Shehu, the national coordinator of NSIPA, was suspended by Tinubu due to allegations of financial misappropriation and money laundering involving N37.1 billion. She was subsequently arrested and interrogated by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
The EFCC is investigating three second-generation banks’ involvement in the illegal funds transfers meant for poverty alleviation and other government intervention schemes.
Shehu allegedly signed off N44 billion from the government account in five days between December 27th and 31st, 2023.
She previously served as the national coordinator of the Conditional Cash Transfer Programme under former Minister Sadiya Umar-Farouk, whom the EFCC also summoned over the same case.
