N-Power: FG Set To Recruit New Batch – Minister Ahmed

Zainab Ahmed/File Photo

Nigeria’s Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed, has said that the Batch A beneficiaries of the famed N-Power scheme need to exited so that the government can recruit another set of volunteers, Concise News reports.

Ahmed was speaking on Tuesday as a guest on the topic, ‘Sustaining The Conversation On Decade Of Action On SDGs’ on Nigerian Television Authority (NTA).

On the programme Tuesday Live, was also Amina Mohammed, the UN Deputy Secretary-General.

“We were to employ 500, 000 youths. They were to work for two years. And they were to be supported to move on to some other things – maybe some other jobs,” Ahmed, a trained accountant explained.

“We had hoped entrepreneurship so that we take another batch.

“So we have the first set still on, and N-Power is getting to the fourth year now. And there are others that had been on the waiting list, waiting for their own.

“So, what we have to do now is to see how to exit the batch that is currently on in a manner that enables them move on to something else.

“We hope that they would not come out and just be in the job market.

“We are going to provide them with resources through the Government Enterprise and Empowerment Program (GEEP). So they have small loans that they can actually use to better themselves.

“During the course of their training, the very first batch of that 500, 000 had devices that were given to them, like iPads. And on those devices, there were several skills depending on what their preference was. Software that was uploaded so that they were learning and training even as they are doing their assignment that was given to them.

“They were trained either as teachers or agricultural extension workers or health extension workers.

“So after working for four years, they should be able to come out of that and do something for themselves.

“So we have the chance to take another fresh batch.”

The N-Power was introduced in 2016 by the Muhammadu Buhari administration to enable Nigerian youths, aged between 18 and 35, both graduates and non-graduates, to imbibe entrepreneurship culture, the FG said.

An estimated 500,000 youths across the country are currently engaged in the scheme, providing services in the country’s education, health and agriculture sectors as well as local governments with a monthly N30,000 (83 US Dollars) stipend.

These graduat-Power include N-Teach and N-Tech, N-Health and N-Tax.