TheCable

Halima Shehu, chief executive officer (CEO) of the National Social Investment Programme Agency (NSIPA), says her leadership of the intervention initiatives would ensure transparency in the selection of beneficiaries. 

Shehu was recently appointed by President Bola Tinubu to head NSIPA.

The social investment programme comprising  conditional cash transfer, school feeding, and tradermoni etc, was established by the administration of former President Muhammadu Buhari.

In a meeting with Betta Edu, minister of humanitarian affairs and poverty alleviation, in Abuja on Tuesday, Shehu said though the NSIP programmes have been criticised for lack of transparency, she and her team hope to deliver on their mandate.

According to Shehu, social programme by the federal government is yet to completely alleviate poverty in the country because the population of poor is twice higher.

“As we all know the NSIPA programmes have now been running since 2016 across the country but it’s yet to completely alleviate poverty out of the country,” she said.

“First, because the population of poor, vulnerables is twice higher than the average population of Nigerians who can afford the basic human needs and not up to 30 percent of the population have been empowered.

“Poverty as we all know, engenders crime in any society, the more the people are uplifted out of poverty the lesser the crime rate in any society.

“As we all know the programmes have witnessed so many criticisms in the country for lack of transparency, accountability, free and fair selection of beneficiaries, realistic database and publicity amongst others.

“We hope to do better in this aspect especially now that the programmes are governed by an act which is a legal framework that clearly states the function of the agency, the CEO, and stakeholders.”

Shehu said she knows the task ahead of the agency having worked in the humanitarian ministry for four years.