FG Disburses $76.5m Abacha Loot To The Poor; Maryam Uwais, SSA To The President

The Special Adviser to the President on Social Investments, Mrs Maryam Uwais on Monday disclosed that $76,538,530 has so far been disbursed from the Abacha loot from the August/September 2018 to the September/October payment cycle.

She added that the figure was in addition to $27,099,028 from the International Development Association/World Bank credit spent on alleviating the plight of poor and vulnerable Nigerians.

The presidential aide said that the Federal Government, through the National Social Investment Office NSIO, had been disbursing the funds to beneficiaries of the National Cash Transfer Programme (a component of the National Social Investment Programme N-SIP).

She added that the gesture was to positively changing the fortunes of many Nigerians who found themselves below the poverty line, based on the data collated in the communities and hosted on the National Social Register (comprising each of the State Social Registers). .

She said the decision to distribute the Abacha loot and IDA funds to poor and vulnerable citizens, who were mined from a National Social Register (NSR), collated by the National Social Safety Net Coordinating Office (NASSCO), was reached by the Swiss Government, the World Bank and the Federal Government of Nigeria, to ensure that the funds were well utilised and not diverted to private pockets, as was the case in the past.