President Bola Tinubu‘s recent suspension of social investment programmes under the National Social Investment Programme (NSIP) agency raises more questions about the efficiency of the intervention.
Development Diaries reports that all four programmes administered by the NSIP agency – N-Power, Conditional Cash Transfer, Government Enterprise and Empowerment, and Home Grown School Feeding – have been suspended for six weeks in the first instance.
Launched to address poverty and promote social inclusion in Nigeria, NSIP has faced significant challenges and encountered various setbacks, contributing to its perceived failure.
The failure of NSIP in Nigeria is a result of a combination of factors, including poor implementation, data management issues, corruption, inadequate monitoring, insufficient funding, political interference, and a lack of sustainable empowerment strategies.
As a result, there have been inefficiencies, duplication of efforts, and the failure to reach the intended beneficiaries effectively.
The success of social investment programmes relies heavily on accurate data to identify and reach the target population. However, the NSIP has faced challenges in data management, leading to the inclusion of ineligible beneficiaries and exclusion of genuine recipients.
Corruption has been a persistent issue in Nigeria, and unfortunately, the NSIP has not been immune to this problem. The credibility of the programmes was damaged by allegations of corruption and poor resource and benefit distribution management.
Also, the lack of robust monitoring and evaluation mechanisms hindered the assessment of the impact and effectiveness of the NSIP. Without proper feedback and analysis, it became challenging to identify areas for improvement, leading to the continuation of flawed strategies and implementation processes.
Some critics argue that the NSIP focused too much on short-term relief rather than implementing sustainable empowerment strategies. Providing cash transfers and conditional cash transfers without a comprehensive plan for long-term poverty alleviation may have contributed to the perceived failure of the programmes.
In a 2019 report, the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace detailed how corruption affects the government’s assistance to Nigeria’s small businesses.
It is interesting to note that the N-Power programme was suspended in October 2023 to give room for a detailed investigation into its operations, but not much came out of the investigations.
Recall that in September 2023, civil society organisations (CSOs) called on President Tinubu to carry out proper auditing and restructuring of the NSIP.
There are questions to be answered following the president’s recent suspension of the aforementioned programmes.
Was the 2023 audit completed? If so, what were the findings? Did the initial audit fail to see the monumental frauds in the NSIP? Who advised the president to release more money to NSIP without fixing the corrupt system, despite advice from development partners and CSOs?
It has been established that the NSIP cannot fight nor reduce poverty, as poverty figures keep increasing in the country. The NSIP would not work where there is a high prevalence of poverty, hence the need for targeted efforts on economic prosperity enablers.
Development Diaries calls on President Tinubu to consider scrapping the NSIP altogether and pull the funds into core development needs, including education, health care, infrastructure, and credit system.
For example, by creating specialised credit products, the government can nurture more small and medium enterprises, which are the backbone of any economy, and reduce inequality and poverty in the process.
Photo source: Fed Min of Humanitarian Affairs
