$322m Abacha loot: Osinbajo reveals how beneficiaries would be selected

Vice-President, Yemi Osinbajo has finally cleared the air on how the
beneficiaries of the direct cash transfer from the $322m recovered
Abacha loot would be paid.

The money is part of the loot stashed in Switzerland by the late
former Head of State, Gen. Sani Abacha

The Vice President made the clarification on Wednesday at the
launching of the Monitoring of Recovered Assets through Transparency
and Accountability project.

The launching was part of the 'Roundtable of the African Union
Champion on Anti-Corruption' to commemorate 1st African Day of
Anti-Corruption.

The event was co-organised by the Presidential Advisory Committee
Against Corruption, PACAC, and the African Union, with the theme,
"Enhancing Domestic Resources for Sustainable Development Goals by
Improved Asset Recovery and Asset Return."

Osinbajo was represented at the event by Special Adviser to the
President on Social Protection, Maryam Uwais.

He assured that the cash transfer programme would be monitored to
ensure transparency of the process.

She said monitors would visit the individual households that have been
identified through "deliberate targeting."

The VP said, "By the end of this year, we should have a register of
the entire country.

"This register is where all our beneficiaries will be mined from.
There is a number for each of the beneficiaries, and we'll have
pictures captured.

"When we started, three banks offered to support us with the
biometrics. By the time they started going to the locations they
realised it was costly for them.

"So they backed out. Now, we're working through agents to ensure we
pay at the last mile, because if a person is on this register, and is
actually deserving of this our N 5, 000, many of them cannot travel
for long distances.

"Many of them need the money so we don' t want them spending money
going to look for their money. So we're using the agents. We're
working to see that their biometrics are captured.

"It' s more than just financial inclusion . It' s also social
inclusion. It's important for planning that every state is aware of
where these people are located.

"We're also collating data on access roads to these communities,
nearest primary schools, secondary schools, healthcare centres,
connectivity issues.

"There is a huge conversation on how to ensure that we're able to make
payment by virtual wallet, because a lot of our women on pay days are
visible when they go to collect their money and we need to protect
them.