The Nation Newspaper

Tag: N-Power

  • Nigeria pledges commitment to eradicate poverty

    Nigeria pledges commitment to eradicate poverty

    Nigeria has pledged its commitment to eradicate poverty through various policies of the Federal Government to transform the nation’s economy , particularly agriculture.

    Mr Arnold Jackson, Assistant Director, Nigerian Export Promotion Council ( NEPC ), stated this while delivering Nigeria’s statement on ‘Eradication of Poverty’ during the general debate at the 72nd Session of the UN General Assembly in New York.

    Jackson said: “One of the policies of government to drastically reduce unemployment and by extension reduce poverty is the N-Power programme, aimed at engaging 500,000 Nigerian youths.

    “The N-Power provides a structure for large scale and relevant work skills acquisition and development while linking its core and outcomes to stimulating the larger economy.

    “The beneficiaries of the programme will help in diversifying Nigeria’s economy as well as actualising economic and strategic aspirations of achieving food security and self sufficiency.

    “No fewer than 150,000 Nigerian young graduates have already been engaged under the N-Power Scheme, while the process of engaging the remaining 350,000 is currently underway”.

    According to him, Nigeria is paying special attention to agricultural development in view of its importance to employment generation, women empowerment and poverty eradication.

    “Hence, various agricultural schemes have been initiated to create opportunities for women and youth, with the aim of supporting them with necessary infrastructure to attract various levels of agro investments and non-oil export opportunities.

    “Some of these schemes include the ‘Green Initiative’, ‘Zero Oil Plan’, ‘Zero to Export’, ‘One State One Product’, to mention a few.

    “Government is committed to ensuring that her agricultural advantages are further boosted through technology transfer, export promotion and rural development, which are fundamentally important for agricultural development in Africa.

    “Nigeria would continue to encourage other countries to grant market access opportunities to her exportable agricultural and other products,” he said.

    Jackson said it was Nigeria’s firm belief that gender equality and women empowerment would be better achieved through the eradication of poverty and the implementation of appropriate economic measures.

    “This is why a ‘National Social Protection Policy’ is currently under consideration to address poverty, vulnerability and inequality in the country.

    “The Nigerian government has also intensified campaign for the Girl Child education in order to secure their future participation in national development.

    “This effort should be emulated globally to improve the situation of women in the context of the 2030 Agenda.

    “At the global level Nigeria keys into several initiatives aimed at empowering women and the girl child, such as the ‘She Trades Initiative’ by the International Trade Centre,” he said.

    He said Nigeria rightly acknowledged that eradicating poverty in all its forms and dimensions remained the greatest global challenge and an indispensible requirement for sustainable development.

    “It is on this premise that Nigeria avows that international cooperation to combat illicit financial flows and enhance asset recovery to foster sustainable development.

    “This is a practical sincere commitment to eradicating poverty and by extension ensuring the attainment of sustainable development,” he said.

    NAN

  • DG VON commends Buhari’s pro-people governance

    DG VON commends Buhari’s pro-people governance

    Chief Osita Okechukwu, the Director-General, Voice of Nigeria ( VON ) and a stalwart of the All Progressive Congress ( APC ) has commended President Muhammadu Buhari’s  pro-people style of governance.

    Okechukwu told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Enugu on Monday, that the president’s Independence anniversary address was a grand statement.

    He said it was to reiterate APC’s commitment toward repositioning the country for socio-political and economic growth.

    The DG noted that the President, in the last two years, had concentrated in ensuring that workers and pensioners in the country were well catered for at every level of governance.

    Okechukwu also said that the President had evolved a bottom-up approach to governance, describing it as people-centered and welfarist in nature.

    He said that it was heartwarming that Mr President had assured Nigerians of much better and progressive days ahead as his administration entered the second half in office.

    “Mr President, within the last two years, released additional support of N1.64 trillion to states and local governments as part of measures to stabilise the polity.

    “This was used in paying salaries owed workers for over 12 months and accrued unpaid pensions for many years.

    “Mr President could have used the said money to build over 1,000 kilometres of asphalted roads which would be highly visible to all.

    ‘’But he decided to use it to uplift the plight of workers at rural areas, who owe school fees, house rent, electricity and food stuff bills.

    “This shows a fatherly heart; people-centered thinking and programme of President Buhari meant to touch the lives and livelihood of millions of Nigerian workers and families, notwithstanding the level of government,’’ he said.

    He also commended the Federal Government’s N500 billion Special Intervention Programmes.

    Okechukwu said the programmes via Home-Grown School Feeding; N-Power; Conditional Cash Transfer; Family Homes Fund; Social Housing Scheme and providing loans to traders and artisans were designed to up-lift poor Nigerians from poverty.

    He, however, called on state governments and generality of Nigerians to take advantage of the current Federal Government-led revolution in agriculture to be empowered and engaged.

    “Agriculture is making the anticipated impact in the economy and lives of those that had shown interest in the Federal Government’s agricultural programmes.

    “I will like all states in the country, especially the states within the South-East, to use the agro-allied opportunities and loan schemes judiciously to create jobs for the youth and check unemployment in the zone.’’

  • Kogi promises employment for N-Power teach volunteers

    Kogi promises employment for N-Power teach volunteers

    Gov. Yahaya Bello of Kogi has assured the N-Power teach volunteers in the state that they will be absorbed into the civil service at the end of their service.

    He gave the assurance while addressing the volunteers in Lokoja during the interactive session with  partners and the federal government’s monitoring and evaluation team.

    Bello noted that the government appreciated the services of the volunteers, especially in the schools and said those with the requisite teaching qualifications stood the chance of being absorbed in the state service.

    The governor gave the assurance that Kogi would continue to partner the N-Power volunteers during and after the programme.

    “You will be ready materials to be engaged by the state,’’ he said, adding that the state executive council had decided to engage qualified hands to help in the education sector.

    He, therefore, advised the volunteers to put their body and soul in the programme and also serious interest as well as carry out the assignments with passion.

    “Do it with passion because it is service to humanity,’’ he said, adding that in spite of the stipends the scheme was an opportunity to develop themselves, the society and give hope and future to the young ones.

    The governor thanked the Federal Government for initiating the youth job programme and following it through to ensure that the teeming youths across the country were empowered.

    He also said that the volunteers had demonstrated the spirit of patriotism and loyalty to the nation by joining in the programme.

    “We have been giving our support to ensure that the programme is a success in Kogi state.

    “This is a promise kept by Mr President  and this is a promise kept by our great party, APC, and this is a promise kept by this new direction administration,’’ he said.

    The governor requested that the state should be given large number of volunteers in the next recruitment.

    The Presidential aide on Job creation, Mr Afolabi Imoukhuede, had requested that the state did effective monitoring of the volunteers to derive maximum benefits from the scheme.

    Some volunteers who narrated their experiences in the scheme thanked President Muhammadu Buhari for giving them a sense of belonging and providing them with means of livelihood.

    NAN reports that the job scheme, known as ‘N-Power’, is one of the five initiatives of the Social Investment Programmes of the Federal Government.

    NAN reports that the Presidency said no fewer than 403,528 persons had so far successfully applied for jobs on the Federal Government’s newly-launched job portal since it opened for applicants.

    The Senior Special Assistant to the Vice-President on Media and Publicity, Mr. Laolu Akande, who disclosed this, said as of noon on June 13, about 403,528 applicants had successfully registered on the site and were in the middle of completing the application process.

    According to the statement, the website has so far recorded over 35 million hits since Saturday midnight.

  • 60 volunteers enter N-Power black book – Presidential aide

    60 volunteers enter N-Power black book – Presidential aide

    No fewer than 60 volunteers in the Federal Government’s job creation scheme for youths are on payment hold and may be prosecuted for fraud, the Presidential aide on Job Creation, Mr Afolabi Imoukhuede, said on Monday.

    He gave the indication while addressing 5,559 N-Power volunteers in Kwara at the Banquet Hall of the Government House, Ilorin.

    At the event, he gave July ending as deadline for those experiencing payment issues to resolve them or be removed from the programme.

    Imoukhuede had led a team of Monitoring and Evaluation officials to assess the performance of the volunteers in the state as well as mandate the state’s institutional partners to take absolute charge of the volunteers.

    According to the aide, many volunteers have been collecting unbroken stipends of N30,000 monthly without reporting for work which discourages serious volunteers from giving in their best.

    He said the 60 volunteers already identified nationwide would be used to set examples, noting that the programme was not a cake-sharing or cake-collection scheme.

    He said that no fewer than 363 volunteers deployed in Kwara were  ghosts and did not exist in the programme, adding that those found guilty of absenteeism would be forced to return all stipends received and prosecuted.

    He explained that volunteers were the cause of non-receipt of their stipends because they failed to validate their financial records more than seven months into the graduate scheme.

    He further dispelled insinuations of irregularity in the payments of stipends nationwide, explaining that disparity in dates of payment was to accommodate newly validated volunteers.

    “There is no irregularity in the payment of stipends; we do not discriminate against states.

    “The reason for what you tag irregularity is that we are trying to update your accounts.

    “Our goal is that everyone will receive all stipends unbroken,’’ he added.

    Imoukhuede said that N-Power was a lifeline extended to youths by President Muhammadu Buhari and Acting President Yemi Osinbajo as a platform for learning, working and gaining entrepreneurship.

    He said it was technology-enhanced  and designed programme where the graduates were expected to be technology-compliant which informed the addition of a device for learning and data collection to increase volunteers’ employability skills.

    “There will be evaluation of performance through the devices.

    “Google and Microsoft Academy have provided lots of learning materials in the devices for your benefits, so you have to take the devices seriously as your daily manual,’’ he advised.

    Earlier at a stakeholders’ meeting, Imoukhuede emphasized that July ending was the last chance given to all with stipend issues to resolve them or they would be written to withdraw from the scheme.

    “Those of you yet unpaid are enjoying several months of grace.

    “End of July is the last chance and if they are unable to reconcile their accounts we will call them to exit the programme and 263 of them are involved in Kwara,’’ he noted.

    On the deployment of non-professionals to N-Teach, N-Agro and N-Health, the presidential aide noted that volunteers were sent as assistants in the disciplines, adding that “the scheme is qualification agnostic and we deployed to areas of need’’.

    He recalled that the Federal Government’s N6.9 billion monthly investment from where Kwara economy had sucked in N160 million via the volunteers, was not a joke.

    “The beauty of the scheme is that rather than fund state treasury, the money goes straight to volunteers’ pockets from where it trickles down to the economy of their rural families and enhances their saving culture.

    “That is why the scheme earns a space in the economic recovery programme of the Federal Government,’’ he said.

    Imoukhuede advised the state’s institutional partners to ensure effective monitoring and discipline, adding that they would be shortchanging the state and the rural communities if they failed in such task.

    The Special Assistant to the President on Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs), Mr Mohammed Brimah, tagged the more than 5,000 graduate-volunteers in Kwara as special, having been selected from 7,000 applicants from the state.

    Brimah, an indigene of the state, urged the volunteers to remember that they were the state ambassadors but had three other persons that could replace them if found wanting.

    “N-Power has given you an opportunity to impact on your community.

    “Visit the #muchmore tag on the portal where volunteers share their contributions to add your own contributions for the nation to also see your positive impacts in Kwara,’’ Brimah added.

    The State Focal Person for N-Power and Permanent Secretary, Youth and Sports, Elder Ayobola Samuel, said that the volunteers had reduced the manpower gaps in education, agriculture and health facilities in the state.

    He hailed the Federal Government for the initiative and gave the assurance that the state government would do everything possible to enable the scheme and its participants to succeed.

  • Plateau records success stories in job creation scheme

    Plateau records success stories in job creation scheme

    N-Power volunteers offering community service in their birth place, alma mater and others who embraced entrepreneurship and became owners of integrated farms in different parts in Plateau, have recorded success stories .

    Mr James Francis, a Chemistry graduate from the University of Jos, is a volunteer in the laboratory of the Primary Health Care Centre, Bukuru, Jos South Local Government Area, where he was born, and the management said it was pleased with his services.

    Mr Samuel Dapil, visually impaired at two, is a toast of the Gindiri Material Centre for the Handicapped (GMCH), in Mangu Local Government Area where he teaches sciences and mathematics to blind children as well as brails the subjects.

    At the Nomadic School, Mandarken, a remote community in Bokkos Local Government Area(LGA), three N-Power volunteers have combined with the only three staff members of the school to turn around the learning fortunes of some 89 pupils.

    Same for Edward Dabi, an N-Power  volunteer in Bokkos, who has spent half of his stipends to open a mini integrated farm, cultivating 2.4 hectares of rice, sizable portion of potatoes and maize farm and animal husbandry.

    Another volunteer, Jethro Jacobs, an animal scientist, opened a veterinary clinic at Mangu with stipends he received as N-Teach volunteer in the community.

    The successes were captured when the N-Power Monitoring and Evaluation Team, led by the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Job creation, Mr Afolabi Imoukhuede, visited the volunteers’ places of assignment in the state.

    At the PHC, Bukuru, Francis said he had opened an education trust fund in his bank where he was remitting N12,000 of his monthly stipends, to pay for a post-graduate programme in community health at the end of the volunteer programme.

    “I have been part of the programme for six months now but I have been in this lab for the past five months and I have been trained in a lot of things here in the lab.

    “My lab manager has actually given me a department within the lab and I take care of some special patients, documenting their test results.

    “One very important part of my stay here and the most important is that I was born in this clinic. So I feel very happy to render services here.

    “Due to the course of study, my lab manager and the focal person have advised me to go for my post-graduate in community health.

    “And I have opened a trust fund account with my bank and out of the stipends  I get every month, I have monthly savings towards that project.

    “Every month I drop N12,000 there and by January, I will have something substantial to go for my community health programme,’’ he said.

    At the school for the blind, Dapil described his stay as very wonderful, saying “ I like what I am doing and I am so impressed with the teaching.

    “I feel that I am helping and serving my country and I am giving my best so far’’.

    The coordinator of the centre, Mr Thompson Damwesh, said Dapil was an asset to the centre.

    According to him, “he is doing enough in the area of brailing.

    “He is a specialist in sciences and mathematics and he brails mathematics and sciences.

    “He is the only person who can do this in the country.’’

    At the Nomadic School, Mandarken, a volunteer, Mr Alfred Mwanjel, who read Biology Education at the Federal College of Education, Pankshin in 2011, said he intended to extend his services to a nearby school to teach the pupils of both schools how to co-exist as Christians and Muslims.

    At the Women-in-Health Centre in Marish-Kwatas, Bokkos area, a rural community, Miss Mary Musa, a 2014 Environmental Health professional, expressed  appreciation of the Buhari administration for the job creation scheme.

    She said she started a private investment with her stipends and supported her parents and siblings financially since she became a volunteer.

    The presidential aide on job creation expressed satisfaction with the entrepreneurial spirit of the volunteers and encouraged others to be creative and apply the same spirit, to improve their lives.

  • 2.3 million apply for fresh N-Power job – Osinbajo

    2.3 million apply for fresh N-Power job – Osinbajo

    Acting President Yemi Osinbajo said on Friday that about 2.3 million individuals have already applied for engagement under the N-Power scheme.

    The government engaged 200,000 people under the scheme last year.

    Osinbajo spoke at N-Power call center in Abuja, where some of the youths were given tablets to facilitate their jobs.

    The acting President said: “Already 200,000 young people have been engaged. And since the programme was opened another 2.3 million have applied and we are looking at the next phase of engagement.

    “But for me I think what is important is that we are able to do this incrementally and we are able to give hope to some of these young people who need the opportunity.

    “We will never always be able to do everything but I think that it is important that we do as much as we can.

    “You will recall that the target was 500,000 but depending on our resources we can always do more but the target for now is 500,000.

    “But what I want to say to the young people working on this is that,  if we take the opportunity for instance if you look at the tablet given to them, the tablet contains so much information, so much learning material that one can really develop his skills in a wide variety of ways and be able to give himself greater opportunity.”

    According to him, the N-Power job is a learning programme and much more than an employment programme.

     

     

  • N-Power: SOS to acting President

    SIR: The Social Investment Programme otherwise referred to as N-POWER is commendable and has indeed improved the living conditions of many neglected unemployed graduates of this country. It has also rekindled the lost hope in government and ensured more confidence in the leadership as well as enhanced the popularity of the government. There is a sense of belonging to our new Nigeria. Your Excellency, for the first time in our nation, applicants were selected for such a programme based on merit; against the old norm of man-know-man syndrome. Thanks to the system you put in place to prevent such cankerworm. The programme indeed has been a huge success despite some few hitches here and there; as some selected volunteers have complained of not being paid their stipends as a result of unmatched registered names with banks details, age issues etc. Even at that, and I must applaud the hardworking personal under your office who have rectified some of these issues.

    Notwithstanding the praiseworthiness, usefulness and excellence of the programme, some thousands selected applicants have been disqualified on the ground that they are above 35 years. I for instance was affected as a result of the above criteria.

    I am calling on our humane acting President, and the good people working under you, on behalf of so many applicants affected based on age, to please reconsider us and waive the age criteria and extend it to 50 years, so that quite a good number of people would benefit from the programme. It is a fact that some of us applied, even though, we were above 35 years, but, we believed then as we do now that, laws, rules and conditions are man-made and can be changed from time to time for the good of society just like the age condition in this second phase of the programme is 18-40 as against 18-35 in the first phase of the programme.

    If what I read in the newspaper considering age is true. Interestingly, I was 40 years when I applied in 2016 in the first phase of the programme. Now, I am 41. I am appealing that, I and others who have age issues leading to disqualification should be considered.

    So many of us selected in the first phase of your programme like me, as you read this letter, their profiles have been tagged disqualified as a result of age barrier.

    If our past government had initiated this kind of programme when we graduated so many years ago, when government revenue was so high, we would not be here lamenting to you in this manner on the issue of age. We may have been empowered to empower others by now.

    I am therefore appealing to you, with the uttermost respect, to kindly extend the age specification for those selected in the first phase of the programme to 50 years so that those who are disqualified would be considered.  If you did it for the second phase of programme, I believe you can do it also in the first programme for those whose profiles have been tagged disqualified on ground of age. This change would go a long way to accommodating many jobless graduates above the age of 40 who have suffered untold hardship as a result of insensitivity of some of our leaders.

     

    • Akume Emmanuel Aondofa,

    Benue State.         

  • ‘Why I returned N60,000 salary to N-Power’

    ‘Why I returned N60,000 salary to N-Power’

    Mr. Daniel Joshua, the Taraba state-born 31-year old, former N-Power graduate employee says his sound Christian moral upbringing compelled him to refund the N60,000 paid into his account, after he quit the scheme in April.

    Vice President Yemi Osinbajo on Saturday July 1, tweeted and praised Joshua’s rare display of integrity, which he said was worthy of emulation by Nigerian youths.

    Joshua now works for the Central Bank of Nigeria in Benin. He is  from Lissem in Ussa local government area of Taraba state.

    He told the News Agency of Nigeria on Tuesday: “My Christian moral upbringing helped me to do the right thing.

    “My pastor once told me that whatever weakens the conscience weakens the authority.And because i have always tried to avoid anything that will weaken my conscience, taking the decision to refund the money was not a problem.

    “Although i didn’t have any money in my account at the time, the orientation from my bosses in my new employment about transparency, integrity and accountability also helped me quickly decide on the right path to take in the matter,’’ he said.

    Joshua, who married in 2015 and now has a child, said some family members and friends tried to persuade him to keep the money.

    “ But I am happy because both my wife, mother and elder brother, encouraged me to refund the money as soon as i received the alert for the two months salary.

    “Yes, there were some friends and family members who persuaded me to keep the money, saying it was my luck,’’ he said.

    Joshua graduated in Economics from the Modibo Adama University of Technology, Yola.

    He said:“It pays to be upright at all times.’’

    He advised Nigerians, especially the youths to be upright in their daily dealings and become good ambassadors of the country.

    Joshua was employed under the federal government N-Power scheme as a Primary school teacher at Kaduna Lissem primary school, in Taraba, in January. He disengaged from the job after working for three months.

    Although Joshua left the N-Power job at the end of March, he was paid N60,000, being stipends for April and May.

    He refunded the money to the coffers of the Federal Government.

    The N-Power management has commended Joshua for refunding the money. A message on its official Twitter handle reads: “We are extremely proud of Daniel.

  • FG gives two-week ultimatum to Akwa Ibom on N-Power volunteers

    FG gives two-week ultimatum to Akwa Ibom on N-Power volunteers

    The Federal Government on Tuesday issued a two-week ultimatum to the Akwa Ibom government to fully deploy N-Power volunteers in the state or lose its slots to other states.

    The Senior Special Assistant to the President on Job Creation and Youth Employment, Mr. Afolabi Imoukhuede, issued the warning at the state institutional stakeholders meeting in Uyo.

    After visiting some schools where the volunteers were supposedly deployed, the Monitoring and Evaluation (M and E) team, led by Imoukhuede expressed displeasure with the execution of the scheme in the state.

    Imoukhuede requested for the schedule of posting for the volunteers immediately, saying the federal government would no longer continue to pay volunteers, who had yet to be deployed seven months after being paid.

    “We need to get a full deployment report in two weeks or the stipends of the volunteers will be put on hold,” he directed.

    The presidential aide said another assessment team would visit the state at the end of the ultimatum to ensure that the right thing was done.

    He also said that the relevant ministries of Agriculture, Education and Health should ensure full monitoring of the scheme.

    NAN

     

  • Ebonyi earns N600m through N-Power scheme – Presidential aide

    Ebonyi earns N600m through N-Power scheme – Presidential aide

    No fewer than N600 million has been injected into the economy of Ebonyi through the Federal Government’s job creation scheme, N-Power, since December 2016, a Presidential aide has said.

    The Senior Special Assistant to the President on Job Creation and Youth Employment, Mr Afolabi Imoukhuede, said this during the scheme’s stakeholders’ meeting in Abakaliki.

    According to him, the amount is the total payments made to volunteers in the state in the past seven months of its operation.

    He, however, noted that in spite of the investments, the volunteers had yet to come to terms with the vision of the programme resulting in chronic absenteeism from places of deployment.

    Imoukhuede said that the Federal Government would no longer tolerate truancy, adding that 21 volunteers in different states were on suspension for various infractions in the programme.

    He observed that while some volunteers had earned stipends in the state without working, another in Taraba, Mr Daniel Joshua, returned two months stipends paid to him to the Federal Government’s Single Treasury Account (TSA).

    He said the volunteer got a new job and resigned from N-Power two months ago but sent a message that he was paid for two months that he had left the scheme.

    Consequently, he requested for the TSA to enable him to return the money that he did not earn appropriately to the government which was obliged him.

    The Presidential aide, currently on Monitoring and Evaluation in Ebonyi, confirmed that Joshua on Friday sent him a scanned copy of the teller he used to repay N60,000 to the TSA.

    He said N-Power was a programme to facilitate the employability skills of volunteers and advised any participant who had secured employment since joining the scheme to emulate the good example to create chance for other job seekers.

    Imoukhuede hailed the attitude to work and entrepreneurship of one Titus Nwali, a HND Mechanical Engineer of Federal Polytechnic Afikpo, on N-Teach at the Amaizu/Amangbala Central School, Afikpo.

    Nwali, besides being regular in schoool, said he had opened a shop with his stipend and retired to it after school every day to earn more money for the upkeep of his family.

    The Presidential aide was, however, unhappy with the attendance of volunteers at the nearby  Amuro Mgbo Community Secondary School and said that two truant volunteers there would be punished for indiscipline.

    At the Afikpo North Local Government Headquarters where 18 volunteers were posted to for N-Agro, he said the agriculture volunteers in the state were under-utilised and directed their withdrawal and re-posting to ADP.

    The Ebonyi Commissioner for Economic Empowerment and Job Creation, Chief Moses Nomeh, promised to address the challenges facing the volunteers to enable the state to get maximum benefits from the scheme.

    According to Nomeh, the state will not tolerate non-performance caused by the un-seriousness of the volunteers, adding “this is a serious programme and one should not expect to reap where one did not sow.’’