The Federal Government has said that the N-Power scheme, which is currently undergoing restructuring as part of its investigation of past administrators of the social investment programmes, will result in the employment of five million young Nigerians in five years.
Akindele Egbuwalo, the national programme manager for N-Power, announced this in a news release.
“This restructuring and transformation will also birth an expanded programme to reach beneficiaries aged 18-40 (the previous age limit was 35). We are targeting five million beneficiaries in five years at a pace of 1 million per year under the graduate and non-graduate stream,” stated the N-Power coordinator.
Mr Egbuwalo disclosed that it would accommodate some new programmes in education, health, works, agriculture, technology, fashion, entertainment and other relevant skill acquisition and employability areas.
“To earn the confidence of Nigerians in the expanded programme, transparency and accountability will be the benchmark. It shall no longer be business as usual as we make concerted efforts to put the nation on the right footing, ensuring that no one directly or indirectly unleashes suffering on Nigerians,” he said.
Mr Egbuwalo explained that suspension of the programme became imperative after the discovery of sharp practices and to give room for a detailed investigation into its operations in the last 12 months.
The minister of humanitarian affairs, Beta Edu, had announced the suspension and investigation of past activities of the N-Power programme in the last twelve months.
The ministry said it found instances whereby participants of the programme whose enrollment has lapsed since 2022 but who have stayed in the programme and are still expecting payments from the government.
The N-Power initiative is Nigeria’s work-for-cash social assistance programme. It was launched in 2016 by then-President Muhammadu Buhari and has thousands of direct beneficiaries working in the programme’s primary target industries: agriculture, health, education, and tax.
In a recent report, Peoples Gazette highlighted the irregularities perpetrated by programme administrators under the Buhari regime.
(NAN)
