Abuja, June 24 – The Minister of Women Affairs, Uju Kennedy-Ohanenye, has accused the administration of former President Muhammadu Buhari of mismanaging the first tranche of a $500 million World Bank loan intended for women’s empowerment in Nigeria.
Kennedy-Ohanenye made these allegations during an appearance on Arise Television’s Morning Show on Monday.
Kennedy-Ohanenye claimed that the first $100 million of the loan, allocated for the ‘Nigeria For Women Project,’ was mishandled. She asserted that the funds, which were meant to improve the livelihoods of Nigerian women, were primarily spent on advocacy, meetings, and consultancy services, with little to no accountability and transparency.
“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 office, he looked at it with me, and we were not satisfied with how the money was used,” Kennedy-Ohanenye stated. She emphasized that this was a loan, not a grant, and stressed the importance of managing the funds properly to ensure repayment.
She criticized the previous administration for failing to use the funds effectively to support women-centric projects, as intended. “The project is called Nigeria For Women Project. It is supposed to be meant for projects for women, but that was not the case,” she added.
Kennedy-Ohanenye also revealed that a new structure for the loan’s utilization has been proposed and forwarded to the Minister of Finance, Wale Edun, for approval. “Fortunately, I quickly raised a new structure on how that money will be utilized so there won’t be more issues of advocacy, meetings, and consultancy, which to me is a way of lavishing the money,” she said.
She assured that the new structure, once approved, will focus on directly benefiting vulnerable women across Nigeria. “$500 million 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,” she said. The Ministry of Women Affairs has already started onboarding vulnerable women from communities across the nation through a newly created portal, in collaboration with traditional rulers and commissioners.
The Nigeria For Women Project is a strategic partnership between the World Bank and the Nigerian Government, initially approved on June 27, 2018, with $100 million in financing. The project aims to improve the economic status and livelihoods of women in Nigeria.
