The Minister of Women Affairs, Uju Kennedy-Ohanenye, has accused the former Muhammadu Buhari administration of mishandling a $100 million loan from the World Bank intended for empowering women.
Kennedy-Ohanenye stated during an interview on Arise Television’s Morning Show that the previous administration had misused the initial $100 million installment of the $500 million World Bank loan designated for the Nigeria For Women Project.
The project, a collaboration between the World Bank and the Nigerian Government aimed at enhancing the lives of Nigerian women, received scale-up financing to improve economic opportunities, education, health, nutrition, and resilience to climate change among women and communities.
According to Kennedy-Ohanenye, the $100 million disbursed by the Buhari government did not align with the goals of the Tinubu administration’s Renews Hope Agenda. She criticized the expenditure, claiming it was predominantly used for advocacy, meetings, and consultancy services, with inadequate accountability and transparency in how funds were distributed among states.
The minister highlighted that the project, launched in 15 states and the Federal Capital Territory, was intended to benefit vulnerable women across Nigeria.
She said,
“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 the office, he looked at it with me and we were not satisfied with how the money was used. Let me make it clear, this is not a grant, it is a loan and when monies are given out as loans, they must be managed well so that the money can be paid back. if we don’t manage it well, how do we pay back the loan?
“When money is a loan, we expect whoever is given the loan to be allowed to utilise it properly in a way that the money will be paid back, so Nigeria will not continue owing all the time. So, the first $ 100 million, when I came in, I was not satisfied. It didn’t augur well with the Renewed Hope agenda.
It was mainly for advocacy, meetings, and consultancy, and that was it and they shared it among the states. But remember, 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,
“Fortunately, I quickly raised a new structure on how that money will be utilised so there won’t be more issues of advocacy, meetings and consultancy, which to me is a way of lavishing the money. So we took a new structure to him (Tinubu), he looked at it and he signed a memo, approving it for restructure. I quickly wrote to the Minister of Finance, Wale Edun, and I’m waiting for the new template to be restructured because Nigerian women are concerned, and we can work with the old structure.
“The former structure was there and women continued suffering. $500million 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, and I have planned myself from the Federal Ministry of Women Affairs, awaiting the new structure. What did I do? I created a portal, and we have started onboarding women from the communities we partner with all the traditional rulers and commissioners across the nation and they have started onboarding the vulnerable women from communities.”
