Success Nwogu 
A former President of the Nigerian German Business Group, (NGBG), Mr Joe Femi-Dagunro, has urged the Federal Government not to implement social investment schemes until there is reliable data and good planning. He stated that while it is good to support the vulnerable group, it should be done in such a way that the support would reach the targeted people and be devoid of corruption.
The International Monetary Fund had urged FG to fully implement its cash transfer programme aimed at assisting vulnerable households. It advised that the established social safety net programme designed to provide cash transfers to impoverished and vulnerable individuals must operate at its maximum capacity. This was contained in its statement on a recent visit by an IMF team led by the IMF Mission Chief for Nigeria, Axel Schimmelpfennig. The document was titled, “IMF Staff Completes 2024 Article IV Mission to Nigeria” published on its website.
But Femi-Dagunro, who is also Founder/President, Kosofe Chamber of Commerce and Industry, in an interview with New Telegraph over the weekend, said efforts must be made to plug loopholes that will engender corruption in the implementation of the scheme. He decried allegations of monumental fraud in some of the interventions of the government. Femi-Dagunro said: “If you look at the report of Schimmelpfennig that came to Nigeria, what he was saying in the right sense of it, it is a good suggestion because he was looking at the poor or vulnerable people as the people that are badly affected.
But I do not support the fact that 8 percent of Nigerians are those who are hardly hit by this hardship. They are more than that. “Because they provided a loan even before President Tinubu came into power and we have seen the fraud, that former Minister, Saadiyat is being investigated and the former Minister, Betu Edu has been suspended and we are still awaiting the outcome of the investigation. The programme was laudable, but badly executed and no one can condone that and it should be discontinued. “I believe that we do not have a better database that will really show who are the vulnerable? What qualified one to be a poor man or poor woman.
What qualifies any young man to be entitled to this social welfare package. We have to define that and it takes time to do that. It is not what anybody can do successfully within 2 or three years as we are being made to understand. This is the information they target. All these have to be properly placed.” “Looking at it, I am not saying that we should not be our brother’s keepers. We have seen this fraud. How can one person defraud the masses of loans from the IMF or World Bank? The IMF and World bank gave us loans with interest and they have to collect their money one way or the other. So, they have to protect themselves as well.” The current affairs analyst said that giving ideas or suggestions was not a bad one but how the idea or suggestion is implemented is what matters.
He noted that implementation was the key point. He also said that it was not as if Nigerians do not have ideas and suggestions but that the issue is its implementation. He decried corruption in some government programmes and said strategies should be activated to stop such frauds. Femi-Dagunro said: “It is your planning and social welfare programme is not within four years. Look at other countries, like Germany for example. This social investment has been planned for hundreds of years and people have been paying into the purse. “So, it is not what we will wake up and say we will do within four years. I do not know why anybody could even come up with that idea because it is just opening up a space for stealing. You cannot be successful with this social welfare programme within four and eight years.
