The National Coordinator of National Social Investment Programmes (NSIPs), Dr Umar Bindir on Thursday assured Nigerians of the present administration’s resolve towards effective implementation of various components of the National Social Investment Programmes (NSIPs) despite the virement of N276.757 billion budgetary allocation in the 2021 Appropriation Act.
Recall that the Senate and House of Representatives before embarking on the Christmas and New Year holiday unanimously approved President Buhari’s request for the virement of the total sum of N276.757 billion from the N13.588 trillion approved in the 2021 Appropriation Act.
The N276.757 billion was vired from the capital component of the budgetary allocation for the National Social Investment Programme as encapsulated in the 2021 Appropriation Act, which has been extended for a period of 90 days by the National Assembly.
While responding to question on the development and the capacity of the Ministry to utilize the funds, NSIP National Coordinator gave the assurance during a media chat at the sideline of the
He said: “We are aware of this situation in the budget. But we were made to understand that there are observations that when you see resources in the coffers of the Ministry associated with the Social Investment Programme that has not been spent towards the end of the year that it is not utilised.
“But remember, the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development is not a Sectoral Ministry, it is not Ministry of Works, where you have just a road project. It is not the Ministry of Housing that was just implementing housing; it is the Ministry of people, where, first of all under N-Power when you have the budget approved, and you have a provision for one million people, for example, you have to look for these people.
“Let me tell you, under N-Power, when we opened the portal for the first time, we got 800,000 applicants. We opened the portal for the second time, we got nearly 3 million applicants, we opened the portal for the third time, we got nearly 6.5 million out of this pool, you have an opportunity to attach 500,000.
“So imagine the process that you have to screen these young people, find the ones that require the top 500. And it has to go on in the 36 States and the FCT you have to make sure that women are included, you have to ensure that the people with disability are included. This process is not an easy process.
“We go digital where we can we go manual where we can when you do this, and it takes three to five months, of course, the allowances are sitting there, you’re not paying people to think you’re not using but once you attach them, then you have to start paying.
“Like now we are in January, the N-Power does not know waiting until you start paying money into the coffers. When the man runs, months run out. He has to be paid. So this is how it goes.
“But I can tell you, the honourable Minister has taken steps to ensure that we understand how the social investment programme works. You know, the school feeding, for example, it is not a continuous programme, you know; schools close you don’t feed children when they come back, you feed again.
“All these are social dynamics of implementing this programme and so on and so forth.
“So it’s the misunderstanding or the misconception that money is sitting there and it’s not utilised is that psyche and the understanding that this ministry also is another sector of Ministry.
“If you give 100 billion to Ministry of Agriculture, with one cheque, they can buy maybe 500 tractors and that is gone. That does not happen with the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs. If you go to the Ministry of Works, and you say we want 100 kilometres of road, you can assign one Julius Berger and even what do they call it? The first payment can take all that money.
“If you go to the Ministry of Transportation, and you want railway you order for railway equipment, one check can drain all that. That is not how the ministry of Humanitarian Affairs. You don’t get the children or the young people to be attached for employment and payment dropping instantly.
“There has to be a technical process, and we have those technicalities, and that is what we’re deploying but we’re not actually shifted by that, we will get that money back. And we’ll continue to drive this dividend-oriented programme to Nigerians as we go through 2022,” Dr Bindir assured.
While responding to a question on the mining of the names of Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) beneficiaries from the National Social Register, the NSIP National Coordinator said: “For the people who want to become regular Nigerians are thinking, how do I become a part of Social and NSIP? How do I join the register? You know, is there an important place?
“How is it created? They are the means of the register generated. The Conditional Cash Transfer registry is generated at the State level.
“We have offices at the State level for both the register and the CCT and to be registered, your community has to identify you as poor,” he noted.
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