Beneficiaries of the Federal Government’s N-Power programme have taken to social media to protest against the non-payment of their four months’ salaries by the Federal Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development.
N-Power is one of the Federal Government’s National Social Investment Programmes designed to create job opportunities for graduates and non-graduates.
Despite the government’s promise to settle the beneficiaries this week, some of the affected persons alleged that the humanitarian ministry seemed to have abandoned them. They displayed placards on social media demanding that the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, Sadiya Farouq, should pay the N-Power Stream C-2 enrollees their four months’ pay.
According to figures obtained from the humanitarian ministry in Abuja, the programme had enrolled 200,000 youths in Batch A, 300,000 in Batch B, 510,000 in Batch C1, and 490,000 in Batch C2. However, some of the enrollees have not been paid their stipends, which is N30,000 monthly, for the past four months.
“We have not been paid for four months and no one is saying anything about it. Have they abandoned us or what,” one of the enrollees, who pleaded not to be named to avoid being victimized, told our correspondent. Another beneficiary of the scheme said they had been calling on the ministry to settle their payment, “but it is like all our calls have been falling on deaf ears.”
The Federal Government assured the enrollees that their payment would be settled this week. Nneka Anibeze, the Special Assistant to the Humanitarian Minister, said, “They’re (humanitarian ministry) working on their payment. They should get it this week.”
In response to the non-payment of N-Power enrollees, the humanitarian ministry stated that it had enrolled the services of 7,500 independent monitors across the 774 Local Government Areas in Nigeria to support in monitoring the National Social Investment Programmes, including the N-Power scheme. It also received the support of an international nongovernmental organization – Save the Children, and 18 civil society organizations as third-party monitors. The ministry carries out routine monitoring across the country on a quarterly basis, and impact assessments are carried out periodically to measure the effectiveness of these programmes.
The non-payment of N-Power enrollees’ stipends for four months is unacceptable, and the government must take urgent action to ensure that they are paid as soon as possible.
The N-Power scheme is an important initiative that is aimed at creating jobs for unemployed youths in the country. Therefore, the government must do everything within its power to ensure that the scheme is sustained and that its beneficiaries are paid promptly to avoid any disruptions that could affect its overall effectiveness.
