How we spent $22.2m Abacha loot, by FG – TheNigerialawyer

The Federal Government had disclosed that it has spent $22.216
million out the $322 million recovered Abacha loot on various
empowerment schemes.

The reason for spending the recovered Abacha loot it was
revealed, was a “strategic approach to lift millions of Nigerians
out of poverty.”

This disclosure was made in Abuja on Thursday by the Senior
Special Adviser to the President on Social Investments, Maryam
Uwais, while giving account of the National Social Investment
Programme (NSIP) of the Buhari administration.

She stated that the disbursement of recovered Abacha loot
started in 2018 because the National Social Investment Office
(NSIO) needed to sort out issues with the back-end and ensured it
dismantled all identified glitches.

THE PRESIDENT’S SPECIAL ADVISER ALSO REJECTED WORLD
POVERTY CLOCK REPORT WHICH IDENTIFIED NIGERIA AS THE POVERTY
CAPITAL OF THE WORLD BECAUSE HALF THE POPULATION (91.6 MILLION) ARE
NOW EXTREMELY POOR.

Maryam Uwais noted that “the data and parameters used were 2012
figures and occurrences; which neither captured current realities
nor is consistent with information domiciled with the National
Bureau of Statistics (NBS).”

According to her, the Social Investment Programmes designed to
lift the masses out of poverty “are anchored on four broad pillars
which are the N-Power, Conditional Cash Transfers (CCT), National
Home-Grown School Feeding and Government Enterprise and Empowerment
Programmes (GEEP), each of the schemes uniquely targets different
subgroups of Nigerians for empowerment; irrespective of religion,
political affiliation and social class.”

Under the N-Power initiative, Uwais said: “500,000 people spread
across 774 Local Government Areas have been recruited to teach in
public schools, act as health workers in primary health centres and
as agriculture extension advisors to smallholder farmers in various
communities.”

She disclosed that government is “about to commence the N-Power
STEAM Junior programme which will engage pupils in 12 government
primary and secondary schools (as a pilot) to learn, as part of
their school curriculum, computer programming, graphics, animation,
etc. This is in a bid to develop the knowledge economy, with an eye
on the future.”

On the National Home-Grown School Feeding Programme (NHGSFP),
she noted that it was designed “to provide one nutritious, balanced
meal for 200 school days in a year, to pupils in classes 1 to 3 in
public primary schools to boost enrolment, increase the cognitive
function in children and battle malnutrition.”

According to her, “Nigeria is fast on its way to becoming the
leader in Africa in NGHSFP by feeding over 9.7 million pupils and
still counting. NGHSFP requires 94 metric tons of fish, 7,260,862
eggs and 767 cattle slaughtered for the pupils being fed. Fruits,
vegetables and grains are part of the carefully thought-out
balanced diet for all of the pupils.”

With regards to the Conditional, Cash Transfer Programme, the
SSA it was designed to deliver timely and accessible cash transfers
to beneficiary households, as well as build their capacities for
sustainable livelihoods, through a meticulous selection
process.

With regards to the Government Enterprise and Empowerment
Programme (GEEP), Uwais said that “the initiative seeks to provide
collateral and interest-free financial support to businesses at the
bottom of the financial pyramid. Funds for the programme are
managed by the Bank of Industry (BOI). There are currently three
GEEP products; FarmerMoni, MarketMoni and TraderMoni. For the first
two, funds between 10,000 to N350,000 are paid into the accounts of
the successful applicants who belong to a registered cooperative or
association (even if registered at LGA level), and have a bank
account linked to a BVN.”

“For TraderMoni, however, trained enumerators go into the market
and clustered business areas to register traders who fit the set
profile; which include an obvious petty trade, a phone and has a
verifiable place of trade (kiosk, table-top, spot, area of
hawking). The registered traders are then processed for
disbursement of a N10,000 loan. Upon repayment within six months,
the beneficiary becomes eligible for a larger amount, at which
point s/he must open a bank account, with a BVN. Since inception,
BOI has made 1,681,491 loans available to successful applicants in
all the States and the FCT. Repayments are made through selected
agents, which in itself has provided payment opportunities, across
the country”, she stated.

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Nigerian Defence Academy Screening Test Holds 8 June
2019

Sequel to the earlier postponement of the NDA Screening Test for
71 Regular Course, the Academy has fixed Saturday 8 June 2019 as
the new date in which the screening test will hold simultaneously
across different centres nationwide.

In the light of this, candidates who duly applied to the
Nigerian Defence Academy and successfully scored minimum of180 (One
Hundred and Eighty) in UTME are advised to visit application portal
on the NDA website www.nda.edu.ng^[1]
to select the examination centre of their choice and print out
their examination card

Please note that only those with duly printed Examination Card
will be admitted into the various centres for the test.

Once again, the Academy wishes to thank the general public for
the patience and usual cooperation.

Abubakar Abdullahi
Major
Academy Public Relations Officer