Ondo Govt Faults Akinyelure’s Claims On COVID-19 Programme

The Ondo State Government yesterday picked holes in the claim by Senator Ayo Akinyelure (Ondo Central) that the state hijacked and converted the Nigeria Covid-19 Action Recovery and Economic Stimulus (NG-CARES) Programme into a state programme.

The senator was quoted to have made the claim during a Senate Committee meeting with the executive director of the Bank of Industry (BOI) recently.

However, the Ondo State commissioner for Information and Orientation, Bamidele Ademola-Olateju faulted the senator’s allegation.

Ademola-Olateju also said the senator had alleged that the state government hijacked and converted a Federal Government Programme free grant of N3.2M per small scale business owner targeted to cover about five thousand beneficiaries to a State Programme where only a sum of N300,000 was given to each beneficiary.

In a statement, the commissioner described Akinyelure’s claims as false in content, misleading in context and ludicrous in delivery.

She said “the NG-CARES Programme adapted as Ondo CARES Programme is in line with the Federal Government’s directive allowing states to domesticate the scheme,” adding that it is a two-year emergency response designed by the World Bank and the Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF) to assist the 36 state governments and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) to respond to and cushion the effects of COVID-19 pandemic on lives of the poor and vulnerable people in the country.

Continuing, Ademola-Olateju said :” The CARES Programme for Result is a credit facility worth $750 million USD with each participating State eligible to access an equal amount of $20 million USD, depending on the results achieved.

“Even though the Programme is a grant to its beneficiaries, it is however a credit (loan) to the State Government. Like every other state in the Country, a Subsidiary Loan Agreement (SLA) was entered into by Ondo State Government with the Federal Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning on 30th August, 2021.

“While the Programme was declared effective by the World Bank on September 28th, 2021, it was formally launched in Ondo State by the State Governor, Arakunrin Odunayo Oluwarotimi Akeredolu, SAN, CON on Monday 7th March 2022. Participating State Governments are required to first deploy their resources on the selected Disbursement Linked Indicators (DLIs) before being reimbursed by the World Bank.”

The commissioner recalled that Governor Oluwarotimi Odunayo Akeredolu did not interfere in the process  neither did he submit name of any firm for consideration under the DLIs.

She maintained that beneficiary firms under the two DLIs were enrolled and selected based on their meeting the required eligibility criteria as contained in the Ondo CARES Operations Manual.

Ademola-Olateju also recalled that Akeredolu made it clear that “the State Government will never tolerate any political interference in the implementation of the Programme.”

Rejecting Akinyelure’s claim on arbitrary submission of names as spurious and mischievous, the commissioner said “the design of the Programme and the safeguards put in place by the World Bank and BOI do not accommodate political interference as intended by Senator Akinyelure who had concocted a list of 340 business names in the comfort of his Office in far away Abuja as a conduit pipe for the Programme.”

She added: “If the Senator’s concern is devoid of political and nepotistic interests, the State Government is only a call away from him to seek clarification. Our Senator and any interested member of the public should endeavour to get more education on the Programme from the Chairman of the State CARES Steering Committee Pastor Emmanuel Igbasan.”

Ademola-Olateju also said the Akinyelure’s claim that a support grant of three million and two hundred thousand naira (N3.2M) was given by the Federal Government to cover between 3,000 and 5,000 Micro and Small Enterprises in the State, is completely false and unfounded.