Uju Kennedy-Ohanenye, minister of women affairs, could not list the six pilot states where a $500 million World Bank project will be implemented.
Kennedy-Ohanenye was a guest on Arise TV on Monday, where
she accused the past administration of mismanaging the first tranche of the
loan.
The initiative dubbed Nigeria for Women Project (NFWP) is a
strategic engagement between the World Bank and the Nigerian government to
improve the livelihoods of the nation’s women.
NFWP was initially approved on June 27, 2018 with $100m financing. However, in June 2023, the World Bank approved a $500 million scale-up.
The bank said the scale-up will help to ensure better
economic opportunities for women and guarantee better education, health, and
nutrition outcomes for families; while building the resilience of women and
communities to climate change.
Kennedy-Ohanenye said the previous administration “lavished”
the fund on meetings, advocacies, and consultancies.
“Fortunately, President Tinubu quickly made me raise a new
structure on how that money will be utilised,” she said.
The minister asked women to applaud Tinubu who was not
satisfied because the previous outcomes did not align with his ‘Renewed Hope’
agenda.
“The first $100 million, when I came in, I was not
satisfied. It didn’t augur well with the vision of the new president’s Renewed
Hope agenda,” she said.
“It was mainly used for advocacy, meetings, consultancies
and that was it. They shared it among the states.
“But remember the project is called ‘Nigeria for women
project’ and to me, the way I understand it, it was supposed to be used for
projects.”
The minister assured that on her watch, allocations would be
equitable across states.
Asked to reel out the six states where the implementation of
the project will kick off, she said: “I will mention few because I don’t really
know all of it…
“The six states are Niger, Abia…,” she began, before she was
interrupted by Reuben Abati, one of the hosts of the show.
“You don’t know the six states where you are having the
programme?” Abati asked.
“I don’t know all,”
the minister responded, before stuttering on.
“Listen to me, my dear brother, please…
“The six states is
not the issue to me. All the states is what I am focusing on.”
The six pilot states for the project are Abia, Akwa Ibom,
Kebbi, Niger, Ogun and Taraba — with one state representing a geopolitical
zone.
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