As different sections of the executive arm of the Federal Government are now defending the 2017 budget proposals before the National Assembly, new details are emerging on the continuation of the Social Investment Programmes, (SIP)of the Buhari presidency, including a plan to hire 350,000 more unemployed graduates under the N-Power Volunteer Corps.
According to the Senior Special Assiatant on Media & Publicity to the President, Office of the Vice President, Mr. Laolu Akande, President Buhari has requested appropriation of N157.75B in the 2017 budget estimates for the N-Power scheme.
The N-Power is just one of the many SIPs that has so far drawn the interest and praise of Nigerians across board, Akande observed adding that a lot more is to come, especially this year, urging Nigerians to actively come out and take advantage of the different schemes this year.
Out of the N-Power 2017 N157B 2017 budget “ 350,000 unemployed graduates more would be hired and trained, alongside 50,000 non-graduates youths to be engaged as artisans and in other creative ventures,” Akande disclosed in his weekly update on the Social Investment Programmes on Sunday.
Under the N157.75B also, a sum of N4.5B has been earmarked for the Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics, STEM program to support young Nigerians in building skills in those disciplines.
Akande who welcomed the great public enthusiasm the programmes have so far generated, noted that the SIP budget proposals for 2017 are currently being discussed this week at the National Assembly, and urged Nigerians to expect more this year especially in the area of implementation as virtually all of the SIPs are now undergoing different stages of implementation.
“While we were able to engage 200,000 unemployed graduates last year, we will do 350,000 more this year,” he assured, adding that some of the teething problems are giving way to lessons that would smoothen implementation under the 2017 budget.
Equally, under the 2017 budget proposals now before the National Assembly, Akande disclosed that about N75 billionhas been allocated for the National Homegrown School Feeding Programme, which will provide one hot meal a day to 5 million primary school pupils.
He explained again, that this would certainly be an improvement on how far the feeding programme has been implemented so far under the 2016 budget which has so far attained the feeding of about one million pupils.
Source: Leadership