FG to Increase Npower Beneficiaries by 50,000, Budgets N400bn For Npower, Others in 2021

In a bid to continually tackle unemployment in Nigeria, the federal government has made plans to increase the number of Npower beneficiaries by 50,000 in 2021.

This was after the federal government had earlier announced that over 5 million applications were submitted for the 400,000 space available under the Npower scheme.

The Federal government through the ministry of humanitarian affairs has submitted a proposed budget of N400 billion for the 2021 fiscal year on its Social Investment Programme (NSIP).

In the documents submitted to the National Assembly, the proposed recurrent expenditure for 2021 remains unchanged while the personnel cost increases by N3.8 billion or 2.31 percent to N170.1 billion in 2021. This summed the total recurrent expenditure to N350 billion and capital spending to N50 billion.

The document stated that the increase in personnel cost was as a result of the proposed increase in the number of Npower beneficiaries.

This increase is “because of (an) increase in the number of NPOWER (NTEACH Hub) beneficiaries from 400,000 to 450,000,” the document shows.

The ministry allocated 52.6 percent of 2021 proposed recurrent expenditure to the Job Creation Unit which will be used for the implementation of programs, including Npower and innovation hubs.

Last week, the Minister of Youth and Sports Development, Sunday Dare, had complained that the amount budgeted for youth programmes in the 2021 proposed budget is inadequate.

Speaking at a budget defence session organised by the House Committee on Youth Development in Abuja last week, Dare said, “The 2021 budget emphasises investment in our citizens, particularly the youth, in order to achieve the aspirations of government and the move to lift 100 million Nigerians out of poverty.

“It is highly important to note the present capital budget proposal, though higher than last year’s, is yet grossly inadequate to finance the maintenance of five stasis and the mini sports centres that we have across the country, and the youth development centres.”