By Ediri Ejoh
The National Social Investment Office, NSIO, has distanced itself from a report on social media, giving an impression that disbursement of repatriated money by the Swiss Government, otherwise referred to as the Abacha Loot, will commence in October, with the TraderMoni Micro-Credit Loan Scheme.
This was contained in a statement by Special Adviser to the President on Social Investment, Mrs. Maryam Uwais.
The report had noted that “Federal Government had deemed it fit to grant it to Nigerians, especially small-scale business owners. The money will be paid to your account and you are to pay back within six months.
“Please note, it is free of charge. But the bank will ask you to pay N1,200 for those who do not have account. If you have an account with the bank, you don’t have to pay for any account opening and they will give you the form and fill. Please go with a passport photograph and your BVN number.”
However, in its reaction, the NSIO stated that “we wish to categorically state that the Abacha loot is slated to be paid as grants to only beneficiaries of the Conditional Cash Transfer, CCT, Programme hosted on the National Social Register.
“The National Social Register currently comprises data of the poorest and most vulnera-ble households from 33 state social registers around the country.
“The data consists of information collated through a meticulous process that predates the inception of this administration (in eight states), which database would have developed to include social registers from all states of the Federation and the FCT, by the end of October 2018.
“TraderMoni is a separate micro-credit loan scheme under the Government Enterprise and Empowerment Programme, GEEP, one of Federal Government’s four social investment programmes managed by the Bank of Industry, BoI.”
