FG targets 1m beneficiaries of N-Power programme

…To become Africa’s largest post -tertiary job scheme

Due to the growing need for government’s direct intervention in job creation, the Federal Government has said it will expand the N-Power scheme to accommodate 1 million beneficiaries in the next phase.

The creation of N-Power programme, which was borne out of the government’s committed to creating more opportunities for Nigerians to prosper has recorded commendable successes since its establishment.

Responding to variety of questions from Nigerians across different professions and persuasions, at a town hall meeting in Abuja yesterday, the Vice President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, said the programme would become the largest post-tertiary job scheme in Africa.

According to him, “the idea of N-Power is supposed to be government’s own programme of direct employment and training. At the moment, we have taken up to 500,000 and in the next phase we are looking at another 200,000 and closely followed by another 300,000.

“In all, we will be employing up to a million, and that will be the largest post-tertiary job programme in the entire Africa. The reason why we have done this is because of the employment problems that we have, we may not be able to engage everybody but at least government must give some direct provision of jobs.”

Prof. Osinbajo explained further that though government could not pay more than the N30,000 currently paid to beneficiaries and also fix all the unemployment issues, it is working on creating the enabling environment to ensure that beneficiaries as well as other unemployed Nigerians become useful to themselves.

“It is infrastructure that will create the opportunities to provide more jobs, especially through manufacturing and Industry”, he said.