FG begins overhaul of social investment programmes -Official

By Ese Awhotu

The Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development has begun the process of rigorous overhauling of the National Social Investment Programmes (NSIPs) to ensure maximum transparency, greater efficiency and more prudent application of resources.
The process of overhauling the programmes will involve observing and enforcing due diligence in the National Social Investment Programmes (NSIPs) processes to ensure full compliance with extant regulations and best practices in public sector financial transactions, a statement signed by Rhoda Ishaku Iliya
Assistant Director (Information) in the ministry said yesterday.
According to the statement, “
To that effect, all present processes especially beneficiary enrolment and payments including for consultancies are being scrutinized and stakeholders are being consulted for inputs that will lead to the total overhaul of the programmes in order to achieve the purposes for which they were established.
“Similarly, the Ministry will place all transactions under the microscope to ensure that the massive resources which the present Administration is channeling to place in the hands of the most vulnerable groups in the country reach them instead of ending in the pockets of middle men or double-dealers, who while receiving payments from the specific programmes also take up other paid jobs.”
It said that, the Ministry is working to ensure that the beneficiaries of all NSIPs designed to be exited after specified periods will be prepared and exited through the best of the options presently under consideration by the government.
“It is hereby emphasised that the Ministry is determined to give maximum effect to the laudable decision of government to institutionalize the NSIPs, the implementation of which is costing the government billions of Naira annually.
“The Ministry acknowledges that this effort to overhaul the programmes may temporarily slow down the tempo of implementation and will certainly not go down well with vested interests sure to be frustrated with the new direction, and who may therefore resort to the use of traditional and new media as well as misdirected public advocacy to distract government and derail the process,” the statement further said.
The Ministry therefore appealed for maximum understanding and cooperation of all stakeholders just as it also appealed to any misinformed members of the public to desist from actions that may distract the Ministry from discharging this important national mandate or even delay the implementation of these life-changing programmes.
The Ministry said along with its agencies it will continue to render services to Nigerians in humanitarian situations effectively, deliver relief to those affected by disasters, evolve and implement policies that drive social development and facilitate economic inclusion for the benefit of the most vulnerable in the country especially through the N-Power, Government Enterprise and Empowerment Programme (GEEP), Conditional Cash Transfer as well as the National Home Grown School Feeding Programme and other programmes rolled out by the present administration.