Senior Advocate of Nigeria and human rights lawyer, Femi Falana, has called on the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to remit N32.7 billion and $445,000 recovered from officials of the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development to the National Social Investment Programme Agency (NSIPA) for proper use.

Falana, who chairs the Alliance on Surviving Covid-19 and Beyond (ASCAB), explained that the funds were originally approved by the President for the National Social Investment Programme (NSIP), which includes school feeding, N-Power, conditional cash transfers, and small business support under the Government Enterprise and Empowerment Programme (GEEP).

He noted that although the EFCC successfully recovered the amounts in question, they have not yet been redirected to NSIPA, despite the Commission’s declared policy of returning recovered funds to their intended programmes.

“We commend the EFCC and urge it to intensify efforts to recover the outstanding N20 billion still unaccounted for. But more importantly, the recovered N32.7 billion and $445,000 should be transferred to the National Social Investment Programme Agency to help alleviate the hardship faced by over 133 million multi-dimensionally poor Nigerians,” he said.

Falana further urged federal, state, and local governments to scale up contributions to social investment programmes in line with recent increases in national revenue. He stressed that social protection should be meaningfully funded, not treated with token interventions.

His remarks come amid heightened calls for transparency and accountability in Nigeria’s welfare programmes, following a series of high-profile corruption scandals in the sector.