Politics
THE N-Power scheme of the Federal Government will recruit a new set of 500,000 beneficiaries soon on the completion of the ongoing reviews of the programme, the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development have said.
A statement by the ministry noted that the participants regularly spend 24 months, but the current set has spent 30 months arising from changes in the management of the programme.
According to the statement, the Federal Government moved N-Power administration from the Office of the Vice President to the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development at the creation of the Ministry in August 2019.
“The Federal Government has, however, continued to pay the monthly stipend of N30, 000 to participants. Payment records passed on to the Ministry show that the Federal Government paid out N117.6 billion in the last eight months, while the scheme was under the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development.
It translated to an average of N14.7bn per month to 500,000 beneficiaries of Batch A and B,” it said.
It added that the minister, Sadiya Umar Farouq, has assured of the continued commitment of the federal government to the N-Power Programme.
President Muhammadu Buhari inaugurated the N-Power programme in 2016 under the National Social Investment Programme, N-SIP, with the mandate to lift participants out of poverty through capacity building, investment, and direct support. Its goals include enabling the realisation of the President’s vision to create 100 million jobs for Nigerian youths.
“According to the design of the programme, N-power beneficiaries are to spend 24 months after which they would be exited into employment or entrepreneurship. By the time the ministry was created in August 2019, the Batch A beneficiaries had been on the programme for over 30 months.
“What we have done in the ministry in the past eight months is study the programme. We are now ready to reform and streamline N-Power to make it more efficient so that strict terms are implemented and applied,” the minister said.
She noted that N-Power is a flagship programme of the PMB government. It commands significant attention and is a pillar of the social development arm of the ministry.
“Our ministry is committed to humanity and the development of potential even in the face of disasters. Participants and would-be beneficiaries can look forward to new directions in N-Power that help to build human capacity and enable the realisation of the dreams of the participants in various areas, including entrepreneurship.
“The Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs assures that there is no truth to the ill-informed reportage, claiming that the release of existing participants would create unemployment. Hajiya Farouq said that N-Power is a revolving door such as the NYSC.
“Participants come in for a defined tenure. The current set has stayed longer than usual because of changes at the executive level. It does not mean they would not continue the progress of the scheme as planned,” the statement added.
– June 1, 2020 @ 10:20 GMT /
Tags: Review of N-Power Scheme would ensure consistency with programme structure – Ministry
