The Nation Newspaper

Tag: stipend

  • PDP candidate promises N20,000 stipend for jobless graduates

    The Niger State Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) governorship candidate for next year’s election, Alhaji Umar Mohammed Nasko, has promised N20,000 monthly stipend for every unemployed graduates.

    Nasko said the stipend, which would be paid to all registered graduates in the state, would not only enable them to keep the “body and soul together” but also help them to keep them off crime and other anti-social activities.

    The PDP governorship candidate also promised to re-introduce the free education policy for indigene and non-indigenes at the primary and secondary levels, which was abolished in 2016.

    The PDP flag bearer made the pledge in Suleja at the weekend at the zonal governorship campaign kick-off.

    He said the monthly stipend would reduce the increasing rate of crime and thuggery in the state.

    According to him, the All Progressives Congress (APC) administration in the state has done little or nothing to keep the youths off the street.

    Nasko said the neglect of the youths in the state was one of the greatest failures of the APC.

    “In addition to the N20,000 monthly stipend, if voted into office, my administration will immediately bring back the graduate employment scheme where they will be trained and posted to relevant ministries, agencies and corporations for full employment,” he said.

    The PDP candidate faulted the ruling APC administration for the alleged dichotomy in the school fees at the state-owned tertiary education and the abolition of payment of the West African Examinations Council WAEC and the National Examination Council (NECO) examination fees for non-indigent pupils.

  • Payment of N5, 000 stipend, sign of Buhari’s commitment to people’s welfare, says Asiwaju Tinubu

    Payment of N5, 000 stipend, sign of Buhari’s commitment to people’s welfare, says Asiwaju Tinubu

    ALL Progressives Congress (APC) National Leader, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, has commended President Muhammadu Buhari for the commencement of the payment of N5000 each to the poor and most vulnerable under the Conditional Cash Transfer programme of the present administration.

    The payment is part of the cardinal promises of the president during the 2015 electioneering. Asiwaju Tinubu said the stipend for the poor was a sign of the Buhari-led APC government’s commitment to people’s welfare. “I commend President Buhari for keeping faith with his campaign promise. I commend him for empathizing with the poor and the most vulnerable among us. “The payment could n’t have come at a better time than now.

    The stipend is a sign of the government’s commitment to people’s welfare. We must all unite to beat poverty and bring prosperity to the land,” he said in a statement issued on Friday by his Media Office. Tinubu again called for support for the present administration, saying with such, the government would soon turn things around for the benefit of the people. President Buhari had started the payment of N5,000 each to one million poor Nigerians under its Conditional Cash Transfer programme, which is one of his cardinal campaign promises.

    Under the programme, the president had promised to empower one million poor and most vulnerable with the N5000 monthly stipend each. The programme is under the government’s s Social Investment Programmes, in which N30,000 monthly stipends were earlier paid to 200,000 youths under the N-Power programme, which began in December 2016 and the School Feeding programme.

    The commencement of the N5000 payment was announced on Monday in a statement from the Office of the Vice-President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo. The statement, signed by the Vice-President’s spokesman, Laolu Akande, said the first batch of payment would cover nine states. He said some of the beneficiaries had started receiving their payments since December 30, 2016. Akande had said funds for the payments to beneficiaries in Borno, Kwara and Bauchi states were released last week to the Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System, the platform that hosts and validates payments for all government’s SIP.

    He said the funds for another set, which included Cross Rivers, Niger, Kogi, Oyo, Ogun and Ekiti states, would follow soon to complete the first batch of beneficiaries. According to him, the nine pilot states were chosen because they had an existing Social Register that successfully identified the most vulnerable and poorest Nigerians. He said the registers emerged through a tried and tested community- based targeting method working with the World Bank while other states were developing their social registers and would be included in subsequent phases. Akande said the Federal Government would commence community mobilisation for the creation of the social registers in more states to expand the scope and reach of the Conditional Cash Transfer across the country.

  • Still on the N5,000 stipend for poor

    SIR: I write to appeal to the Muhammadu Buhari-led APC administration to reconsider its campaign promise of paying N5,000 per month to unemployed youths as welfare.

    There is that adage that says, don’t give a man fish if you want him to prosper; it is better to teach him to fish so that he can provide for himself in future.

    I would rather suggest the administration establish a special industrial development fund to fund establishment of factories all over the federation using the six geopolitical regions as developmental area. The import of this is that the money will still go back to the people, but in a way they are sure to enjoy if for a very long time.

    The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) for instance has published the list of 41 products it has removed from access to its forex window without immediate plans for the commencement of production of these products in the country. What the CBN has done is publish additional products for smugglers to add to their list. This must not be allowed to happen, for every finished product imported into Nigeria, whether legally or illegally, was produced with the labour in the producing country while our own youths remain unemployed due to no fault of theirs but because of lack of correct policy framework for creation of employment.

    The only sectors that can quickly mope up the huge population of unemployed Nigerians are the manufacturing and agricultural sectors.

    The amount of money needed to establish a medium scale manufacturing or agro-allied industry is between $30 – 50 million   and these can each employ between 200-500 workers directly with multiplier effect of 3-5 person per employee.

    Our businessmen are mostly traders and government contractors who are not willing or don’t even have this kind of money to invest in the manufacturing sector where return on investment will not come back immediately unlike in trading. Even when they have the money, they prefer to invest in properties. Our people don’t like taking risk.

    Government needs to come in by partnering with foreign technical partners to establish factories with the Federal Government providing generous incentives. The foreign partners would be expected to run the factories for a minimum period of five years during which technological and managerial skills for running the factories would have been transferred to our people and the equity contribution the Federal Government sold off on the stock market and money returned to the federation account; that way jobs would be created all over the federation.

    We need to go to Europe to bring in companies that can help us establish tomato/ tomato paste industries all over the northern states where the climate is conducive for its cultivation. The same with companies from Asia to come and establish rice farms and rice mills here. We need the Chinese to help us establish factories for woven fabrics, plywood board, kitchen utensils even toothpick. We need at least 10 factories in each of the six geopolitical regions every year as a means of creating immediate employment for our people.

    Attention must be given to Ajaokuta Steel Company. This is a sleeping giant that must be woken up. Directly, Ajaokuta can employ 600,000 Nigerians and with a multiplier effect of up to five per employee.

    • Taju Adetoro,

    Calabar.

  • Imo pays stipend to pupils

    •Secondary school pupils to earn N500

    The Imo State Government yesterday began the payment of N300 and N500 stipends to primary and secondary school pupils. It also distributed materials to public schools.

    Opening the programme at Owerri City School, Governor Rochas Okorocha, represented by his wife, Nneoma, said the exercise was aimed at encouraging pupils to excel in their studies and create a conducive environment for learning.

    Okorocha said secondary schools pupils will receive N500 while their counterparts in primary schools will receive N300 every term.

    “I am here to open the payment of your stipend. Of course, you know that the governor loves you so much. He has much interest in your education and future. His watchword to students is hard work,” he said.

    Describing education as a vital instrument to a child’s development, the governor assured that the present administration would remain committed to transforming the education sector.

    He enjoined the pupils to be hard-working and respect their elders to enable them become good ambassadors of the country.

    “I see in you a fulfillment of great things to come, therefore you must not fail.

    “To succeed, you must be guided by the following values –hard work, honesty, respect for elders, service to your fatherland, upholding the tenets of your culture and being prayerful.”