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President Bola Tinubu administration has announced indefinite suspension of the multi-billion naira N-Power programme and a probe of how it has been administered since its launch seven years ago.
N-Power was a part of the National Social Investment Programme (NSIP) introduced by the Buhari administration to empower youths and minimise poverty.
Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development Minister in that government, Sadiya Farouq, said the programme gulped up to N890 billion between 2016 and 2022.
Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation Minister Betta Edu, who broke news of the programme’s suspension and probe yesterday, said the action was prompted by several flaws within the scheme.
Edu spoke in an interview on TVC News.
Government, according to her, wanted to ascertain how the money budgeted for the programme over the years had been utilised.
She alleged that some of the beneficiaries were not found in their places of assignment yet they expected to be paid the monthly stipend.
Some other beneficiaries who ought to have exited the programme since 2022 are still on the payroll, she said.
Edu said: “We must go back to look into N-Power and understand what the problems are. So we will basically suspend the programme for now until we are done with proper investigation into the utilization of fund into the N-Power programme.
“We want to know how many persons are basically on the programme right now; how many persons are owed, the amount they are owed. We are totally restructuring the N-Power and expanding it.
“There are lots going on. We met people who are supposed to have exited the programme since last year and they are still on claiming that they are still teaching.
“Sometimes we contact the school or the places where they are working and they are not there. They are not working yet they keep claiming that they are being owed eight or nine month stipends.
“About 80 per cent of them are not working yet they are claiming salaries.”
N-Power was created on June 8, 2016 to address the issues of youth unemployment and help increase social development.
Unemployed graduates and non-graduates between the ages of 18 and 35 were targeted as main beneficiaries.
It was designed as a paid programme for a two-year duration.
The scheme had six categories: N-Teach, N-Health, N-Agro, N-Build, N-Creative and N-Tech.
While N-Teach and N-Health were for graduates who must have completed the mandatory one year NYSC programme, N-Agro, N-Build, N-Creative and N-Tech were meant for graduates and non-graduates.
Another category known as N-knowledge followed in 2021, aimed at equipping youths with computer hardware skills. Beneficiaries were given tools such as laptop computers.
Last February, the immediate past federal government said it had invested the sum of N1.3 trillion to improve the lives of vulnerable Nigerians through its National Social Investment Programmes between 2016 and 2022.
Other legs of the social programmes are Government Enterprise and Empowerment Programme (GEEP), National Home-grown School Feeding Programme (NHGSFP), Conditional Cash Transfers and Independent Monitors (IM).