Social Intervention Programme: FG Pays N30,000 to 150,000 Graduates

• Social Intervention Programme: FG Pays N30,000 to 150,000 Graduates

The federal government said last night that it had been paying N30,000 to no fewer than 149, 669 of the 200,000 graduates engaged under the N-Power Volunteer Corps scheme every month across the 36 states of the federation and Federal Capital Territory (FCT).

According to a statement by Vice President President Yemi Osinbajo’s media aide, Laolu Akande, the scheme is part and parcel of the federal government’s social intervention programme.

According to the statement, the federal government has also approved an additional N4,500 stipends for 200,000 N-Power beneficiaries of the scheme for the purchase of an electronic device which would be loaded with different applications to enhance the skills of the beneficiaries.

“This device grant is in conjunction with the Bank of Industry (BoI) which has extended an asset finance of 20 months to each of the 200,000 N-Power beneficiaries.

“While each of the beneficiaries after being verified would select their choice of device among nine different BoI pre-approved vendors, the price ranges from N3,000 to N6,700 monthly deductions for the next 20 months.

“Therefore, in some cases, the N4,500 device grant would cover the full monthly deduction cost while in other cases, the graduate authorises BoI to deduct the additional differential cost from their monthly stipends depending on the device chosen,” the statement added.

The statement further disclosed that in December, about 112,475 of the N-Power graduate beneficiaries received the N30,000 monthly stipends while the number rose to almost 150,000 in January and February adding that the remaining 50,000 of the 200,000 proposed beneficiaries are those who so far could not be paid for various reasons.