Covid-19: N23.7 billion of Abacha loot paid to poor Nigerians through cash transfer, Civil society group says ~ Matters Arising

About N23.7 billion of the N125 billion ($322.5 million) recovered Abacha loot has been disbursed to vulnerable Nigerians under the Conditional Cash Transfer scheme, a non-governmental group which monitored the disbursement said in a report Thursday.

The Monitoring Transparency and Accountability in the Management of Returned Assets (MANTRA) found about 703,506 people out of the total 834,948 in the social register got N23.7 billion. The payments were made as part of the federal government’s response to the current COVID 19 pandemic, the report said.

The payments covered January to April 2020, said the Africa Network for Environment and Economic Justice (ANEEJ), which led the MANTRA project.

ANEEJ said it led other civil society organisations that participated in monitoring the disbursement of the funds.

Monitoring Abacha loot

The Swiss government in 2017 returned about $322.5 million of money stolen by the late dictator Sani Abacha to Nigeria on the condition that the World Bank would be involved alongside civil society groups in monitoring its use to avoid being stolen again.