We’re Ready To Clear 2016 Backlog Of Allowances – Amnesty Office

The Presidential Amnesty Office has said that it was
ready to clear all outstanding stipends and
allowances of 2016 to the ex-agitators. Special Adviser to the President on Niger Delta and
Coordinator of the Presidential Amnesty
Programme, Brigadier- General Paul Boroh (retd),
who disclosed this, said that the Amnesty Office
has prepared the necessary documents to pay all
2016 outstanding stipends and allowances to beneficiaries of the programme. In a statement, Boroh said all that was left is the
necessary cash backing for the balance 2016
payments as the Amnesty Office had concluded all
arrangements with the Finance Ministry, the
Budget Office, the Office of the Accountant
General and the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN. The Coordinator said that his office had received
assurances that the necessary funds to pay the
backlog of the 2016 stipend, training, education,
vocation and empowerment of the beneficiaries,
will soon be released. Paul Boroh He clarified that non- payments for any part of
2017 was possibly because the budget for the
current year was yet to be passed or signed into
law. General Boroh commended the exemplary
conduct of the amnesty beneficiaries in the trying
times the programme faced due to the paucity of
funds and assured that the worst was over. He assured that adequate provisions had been
made in the 2017 budget to ensure that the
financial challenges were not experienced again. He advised the beneficiaries to take advantage of
the Federal Government’s focus on agriculture,
including the liberal loans such as the Central Bank
of Nigeria’s Anchor Borrowers Programme and
those of the Bank of Industry. The Amnesty
Office, he said, also has its own set of agriculture and aquatic programmes and training which are
being gradually expanded to encompass all the
beneficiaries.