President Bola Tinubu on Saturday approved the establishment of a Special Presidential Panel saddled with the responsibility of undertaking a comprehensive review and reform of the social investment programmes suspended last month.
The panel will be led by the Coordinating Minister of the Economy and Minister of Finance, Wale Edun.
The SPP comes 24 hours after Tinubu suspended all social investment programs administered by the National Social Investment Programme Agency, which also includes the school-feeding programme.
A statement signed on Friday by the Director of Information, Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Segun Imohiosen, said the suspension was in view of the “ongoing investigation of alleged malfeasance in the management of the agency and its programmes.”
Sequel to the six-week suspension of the four programmes, Tinubu tasked the Edun-led panel to “immediately undertake a comprehensive review and audit of existing financial frameworks and policy guidelines of the social investment programmes.”
This is is according to a statement signed by the President’s Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Ajuri Ngelale, titled ‘President Tinubu establishes special presidential panel on social investment programmes.’
Ngelale said the goal is to implement “a total re-engineering of the financial architecture of the programmes with detailed modifications to procedures guiding the programmes’ implementation moving forward.”
The SPP, which is comprised of ministers representing strategic sectors and will ensure a multi-disciplinary approach to the reform effort, is made up of the coordinating minister of the economy and minister of finance as chairman and the coordinating minister of health and social welfare, Prof. Ali Pate as a member.
Other members are the Minister of Budget and Economic Planning, Abubakar Bagudu; the Minister of Information and National Orientation, Muhammad Idris; the Minister of Communications, Innovation, and Digital Economy, Bosun Tijjani; and the Minister of State for Youth, Ayodele Olawande.
Tinubu anticipates that the anel will “validate the confidence reposed in it by winning back all lost public confidence in these vital programmes over the years by ushering in a new era of operation based on open and accountable governance frameworks.”
He said these frameworks will prove “impervious to abuse and incompetence for the exclusive benefit of disadvantaged households across our nation.”
