80% of social investments funded with Abacha loot – Presidency

The Special Adviser to President Muhammadu Buhari on Social Investments, Mrs Maryam Uwais, on Thursday, said 80 per cent of payments for social investments come from the recovered looted funds by former Head of State, Sani Abacha.

She added that the remaining 20 per cent came from credit from the World Bank.

She spoke as a keynote speaker during a training and advocacy programme on tracing and recovery of illicit funds and assets in Abuja.

The training was organised by Human Environmental Developmental Agenda supported by MacArthur Foundation and Open Society Initiative for West Africa in collaboration with Kent Law School, The Corner House, Finance Uncovered and Premium Times Centre for Investigative Journalism.

Uwais said the beneficiaries of the fund had been very responsive and productive, adding that they had saved about N567m.

According to her, over 18,200 of them had taken loans from the intervention while less than 1,000 had defaulted.

She said, “The funds for the social investments are from the World Bank and the Abacha loot. We are using the credit that we got from World Bank in the ratio of 20:80. 80 per cent from the Abacha loot so that we can pay the beneficiaries the amount that the government has pledged to help them.

“This has been quite proactive for them because we have seen a lot of activities in the communities.

“Today many of these women are doing their business, they are trading, and engaging in agriculture. They are doing very well at their homes.”