Barr. Uju Kennedy-Ohanenye, Minister of Women Affairs has accused the Buhari administration of misappropriation of funds.
The Anambra-born minister was referring to the initial $100 million of a $500 million World Bank loan for women empowerment, which she said was “lavished” on meetings, advocacy and consultancy.
In an interview with Arise TV on Monday, Kennedy-Ohanenye said: “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.
“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.
“Fortunately, President Tinubu quickly made me raise a new structure on how that money will be utilised. So, there won’t be more issues of advocacy, meetings and consultancies, which to me is a way of lavishing the money.”
Regarding the distribution of the $500 million, Kennedy-Ohanenye assured that the allocation would be fair and equal across all states.
The World Bank on June 27, 2023, approved a fresh $500 million loan for Nigeria to help improve the livelihood of women in Nigeria, noting that the scale-up financing will further support the government of Nigeria to invest in improving the livelihoods of women in Nigeria.
