By The New Diplomat Business Desk
The Minister of Women Affairs, Uju Kennedy-Ohanenye is in the news again on controversial grounds. This time, the minister has raised concerns about an alleged mismanagement of the first portion of a $500 million World Bank loan intended for women’s empowerment in Nigeria received by the administration of former President Muhammadu Buhari.
The Minister who spoke at news TV channel alleged that the first tranche of the $100 million loan allocated to the Nigeria For Women Project was mismanaged.
According to her, the loan which was approved on June 27, 2018, was solely for the aim of helping the Nigerian women’s project.
However, the Minister emphasized that the intended purpose of the loan was not realized, alleging that the previous administration utilized the initial investment for promotional activities, meetings, and advisory services, and distributed it among the states without adhering to appropriate standards of responsibility and openness.
She said: “About the Nigeria For Women Project, let me first tell Nigerian women to clap for President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, who came in after the first $100 million had been expended. When he came into the office, he looked at it with me and we were not satisfied with how the money was used. Let me make it clear, this is not a grant, it is a loan and when monies are given out as loans, they must be managed well so that the money can be paid back. if we don’t manage it well, how do we pay back the loan?
“When money is a loan, we expect whoever is given the loan to be allowed to utilise it properly in a way that the money will be paid back, so Nigeria will not continue owing all the time. So, the first $ 100 million, when I came in, I was not satisfied. It didn’t augur well with the Renewed Hope agenda. It was mainly for advocacy, meetings, and consultancy, and that was it and they shared it among the states. But remember, the project is called Nigeria For Women Project. It is supposed to be meant for projects for women, but that was not the case.”
The minister also stated the new structure has been forwarded to the Minister of Finance, Wale Edun, for restructuring for the commencement of the disbursement.
She added: “Fortunately, I quickly raised a new structure on how that money will be utilised so there won’t be more issues of advocacy, meetings and consultancy, which to me is a way of lavishing the money. So we took a new structure to him (Tinubu), he looked at it and he signed a memo, approving it for restructure. I quickly wrote to the Minister of Finance, Wale Edun, and I’m waiting for the new template to be restructured because Nigerian women are concerned, and we can work with the old structure.
“The former structure was there and women continued suffering. $500million is not a small amount of money, and I can assure you that it can change the lives of every woman who is vulnerable in this country, and I have planned myself from the Federal Ministry of Women Affairs, awaiting the new structure. What did I do? I created a portal, and we have started onboarding women from the communities we partner with all the traditional rulers and commissioners across the nation and they have started onboarding the vulnerable women from communities.”
The New Diplomat reports that the $500 million loan was a result of strategic engagement between the World Bank and the Nigerian Government to improve the livelihood of Nigerian women.
A statement from the bank said the loan is a scale-up financing for the women’s project, which was initially approved on June 27, 2018, with $100m financing.
It stated that the loan will help to ensure better economic opportunities for women, which is essential for addressing gender inequality; guaranteeing better education, health, and nutrition outcomes for families; and building women’s and communities’ resilience to climate change.
