N-Power programme - Acting President Yemi Osinbajo has said the portals for NPower would be reopened on June 13 to absorb additional 300,000 of the National Social Investment Programmes (NSIP).
This is even as he declared that the NSIP initiative was not designed as a favour for the nation’s vulnerable ones but because as citizens, the beneficiaries deserved it.
Osinbajo spoke yesterday at the second anniversary of the President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration, showcasing the achievements of the NSIP with the theme: “A smile for every Nigerian”, as part of activities to mark 18 years of uninterrupted democratic rule, held at the State House Conference Centre, Abuja.
“The next phase of this programme will proceed on a surer footing. We will be reopening the portals for NPower on the 13 of June, we are ramping up on the CCT, GEEP, and the Home Grown School feeding. Our targets are clear, soon enough we will put smiles on the faces of millions more.
“I want to say to all of you that we do not consider the programme as a favour done to you. It is not. You deserve this programme because you are citizens of this country.
“This country can provide and should provide for all that is in need of help and we will do our very best to provide.”
Osinbajo described the NSIP as a “heart and head” programme because not only is it difficult to ignore the pains caused by poverty, articulate and detailed planning is required to provide appropriate remedies.
“The social Investment Programme is both a heart and a head programme.
Heart, because the pains of poverty cannot be ignored. The programme is also a head or logical common sense issue. A country’s economic development is a function of the number living above poverty level.
“Our levels of poverty are so alarming that clearly some fundamental interventions by government are necessary.
“For all those who need the help, we will do our very best to provide.
“When some people talk about N30,000 for a graduate, it almost seems as if this is ridiculous, but it is clear that anyone who hasn’t had a job for years, and that is the case for so many, needs that start in life.
“I am very, very proud of everyone of you for the ways you have gone about this. You have done this with so much dignity and you have gone about ensuring that everyone who was listening to you is so extremely proud for the way you have conducted yourselves, the way that you have shown so much commitment and so much dedication. This is truly the Nigerian spirit and I am extremely proud of you.”
Osinbajo said with the programme, Nigeria has shown that a massive programme could be initiated and managed on-line.
“The N-Power programme is the largest posttertiary jobs programme in Africa. We now know that we can train large numbers electronically.
“Secondly, we have demonstrated that a transparent process of employment is possible. All of these young men and women have testified that they knew nobody, paid nobody to get the jobs they now have.
“Thirdly, we have achieved great success in our financial inclusion efforts by bringing in many, especially the extremely poor in the hinterlands into the formal banking system.
“Beneficiaries of the Conditional cash Transfer programme, home grown school feeding vendors and cooks, now have BVNs and bank accounts. We have also demonstrated that electronic payment on such a huge scale, across the nation is possible.
“Most importantly, we have ensured that our programmes are in all states not just APC states, so much so that some of the governors in non-APC states even take credit for these Federal Government programmes.
“We know that our children in public schools, many from poor homes, do not really care about whether the food is from one political party or the other.
“The fund will enable us to provide inexpensive mortgages for hundreds of thousands across the country. Already the project has started in 11 States,” he said.
Source: Dailysun