Minister of Women Affairs, Uju Kennedy-Ohanenye, has accused the administration of former President Muhammadu Buhari of mismanaging $100m from a $500m World Bank loan for women empowerment.
Kennedy-Ohanenye said this in an interview with Arise News on Monday, adding that the Buhari administration misappropriated funds including the $100m which she said was “lavished” on meetings, advocacy and consultancy.
The Minister, however, praised President Bola Tinubu for his proactive involvement in the women empowerment project, particularly commending him for his scrutiny of the initial $100 million expenditure.
According to her, the funds are a loan and not a grant, stating the huge importance of proper management to ensure it’s repayment.
“About Nigeria for women project, let me first tell Nigerian women to clap for President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, who came in after the first $100m had been expended,” she said.
“That was when he came in and when he came in, he looked at it with me and we were not satisfied with how the 100 million dollars was used.
“Let me make it clear. This is not a grant, it is a loan and when some monies are loans, they must have to be managed well so that the loans can be paid back.
“If you don’t manage it well, how do we pay back the loan? And when money is a loan, we expect whoever you are giving loan to be allowed to utilise that loan properly in a way that it can yield back the money to be paid, so that Nigeria will not continue owing.
“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. It was mainly used for advocacy, meetings, consultancies and that was it. They shared it among the states.”
She stated that the project is called Nigeria for women project and to her, the way she understands it, the funds were supposed to be used for projects.
The Minister added that Tinubu insisted on raising a new structure on how funds should be utilised “so there won’t be more issues of advocacy, meetings and consultancies, which to me is a way of lavishing the money.”
