The federal government has stated that the ongoing restructuring of the N-Power program is expected to result in the employment of five million young people within a five-year period.
The following statement was issued by Akindele Egbuwalo, who serves as the National Programme Manager of N-Power.
Egbuwalo urged Nigerians to understand the rationale behind suspending the program and the subsequent restructuring, emphasizing the federal government’s efforts to reestablish confidence in the initiative.
Egbuwalo stated:
- “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 5 million beneficiaries in 5 years at a pace of 1 million per year under the graduate and non-graduate stream”.
Providing further details about the redesigned N-Power initiative, Egbuwalo shared that it would embrace fresh programs across education, healthcare, construction, agriculture, technology, fashion, entertainment, and other relevant skill acquisition and employment sectors.
He clarified that the suspension of the Program was essential due to the uncovering of irregularities and to allow for a detailed inquiry into its operations in the preceding year.
- “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.
- “There is a need to audit the number of people in the programme, those who have exited the programme, those who are being owed, whether they reported to work or not, and how funds have been utilised over this period.
- “Recently, we discovered instances of programme beneficiaries whose participation has lapsed since 2022 but have remained on and continue to expect payments from the government. In addition, some beneficiaries must honour their obligation to the programme. They do not report to their places of primary assignments as required but still receive monthly payments.
- “These instances have made the need for a thorough audit imperative, as we also look into claims of those being owed for up to eight to nine months stipends to ascertain the veracity of their claims”, he added.
He assured all beneficiaries with genuine claims that the federal government will not owe anybody as it will resolve all cases and honour all valid outstanding obligations once the verification exercise is completed.
Backstory
Nairametrics reported earlier that the indefinite suspension of the N-Power program.
Betta Edu, the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation, shared this information while appearing on a Saturday TVC news show.
She made it clear that the decision was influenced by irregularities within the scheme, and she emphasized that the government has started an investigation into the allocation of funds since the program’s inception.
She said,
- “We must go back to look into N-Power and understand what the problems are so we will basically suspend the programe for now until we are done with proper investigation into the utilization of fund into the N-Power program.
- “We want to know how many persons are basically on the program right now, how many persons are owed, the amount they are owed. We are totally restructuring the N-Power and expanding it.
- “There are lots going on. We met people who were supposed to have exited the program last year and they are still claiming that they are still teaching. “Sometimes we contact the school or the places where they are working and they are not there. They are not working yet they keep claiming that they are being owed eight or nine months stipends.
- “About 80% of them are not working yet they are claiming salaries”.
it was an empower, and from the ground plan it was supposed that no one spend a dime to go for work from his stippen. But this current one you will be posted even out side your local government for some 30k which you will not see till the program finish. Tell the minister if she thinks that beneficiaries who do not go to work are not sincere then her ministry is the biggest culprit holding beneficiaries money for some business reason and expecting poor Nigerian to work free for them. Then i ask where is the empowerment. No wonder they said went ever the master planner left the stage. the mission and vision of plans will greatly be sabotage