The National Centre for Women Development, an agency under the Ministry of Women Affairs has spent the sum of N1 Billion as part of COVID-19 intervention programmes, documents from the Federal Ministry of Finance have shown.
In the documents that were released by the Federal Ministry of Finance in response to a Freedom of Information request, the National Centre for Women Development, says the sum of N1, 000,000,000.00 will be expended on the jobs creation scheme.
And, under the deal, National Centre for Women Development says it will carry out vocational skill training in the six-geo political zones across Nigeria.
This is even as the National Centre for Women Development did not disclose the exact location in each of the political zones where the training was held.
When MAWA Foundation sought an explanation from the Women’s Centre, on the specific locations where the training was conducted and the number of persons trained in each of the political zones, Mr. Innocent, who is in charge of the vocational training at the centre, spoke via telephone, said he cannot speak on the issue at the moment.
The COVID-19 pandemic presented an opportunity for the Nigerian state to address its public healthcare crisis, unfortunately, the state officials saw it as an opportunity to misappropriate funds.
Although the pandemic threw up a huge public healthcare crisis and exposed the rot in Nigeria’s healthcare sector, the state appears to care less about addressing the healthcare crisis we are facing with many Primary Health Care centres across communities in the country not working.