The House of Representatives has urged President Bola Tinubu to order the Minister of Finance and the Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Mr Wale Edun, to ensure that all frozen accounts of the National Social Investment Programmes Agency (NSIPA) are unfrozen within 72 hours.
The lawmakers argued that unfreezing the accounts would enable the smooth recommencement of all the programmes of NSIPA.
The green chamber of the National Assembly is also urging the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Disaster Management to ensure all the administrative bottlenecks hindering the smooth operations of all programmes of NSIPA are immediately removed.
The resolutions were reached following the adoption of a motion sponsored by the deputy speaker and 20 other lawmakers.
The lower chamber of the parliament said despite the programmes of NSIPA being vital for poverty alleviation, youth empowerment, and economic inclusivity in Nigeria, the agency’s functionality has been hindered due to administrative bottlenecks, insufficient funding, and frozen accounts.
The programmes of NSIPA were truncated by alleged financial mismanagement by handlers of the programmes, leading to the suspension of programmes and freezing of the agency’s account and subsequent investigation by anti-corruption and security agencies.
Recall that President Tinubu suspended all administered programmes by NSIPA on January 12.
This came 10 days after he suspended Mrs Halima Shehu as the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the agency, over alleged financial malfeasance.
Six days later, the President also suspended Mrs Betta Edu as Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation.
Mrs Edu’s ministry supervises NSIPA and came under scrutiny after a memo surfaced wherein she asked the Accountant-General of the Federation, Mrs Oluwatoyin Madein to transfer the sum of N585 million to a private account.