The Federal Government will employ 500,000 graduates through the N-Power scheme of the Nigeria Social Investment Programme (NSIP), Special Adviser to the President on NSIP, Mrs Mariam Uwais, said in Benin, yesterday.
Speaking at an NSIP’s Stakeholders Sensitisation Workshop, Mrs Uwais said “we intend to employ 500,000 graduates this first year. It is open to unemployed graduates between the ages of 18 and 35. All you need to do is to go on to the portal that has been opened, and it closes on August 31. The portal is www.npower.gov.ng”.
Governor Adams Oshiomhole of Edo State praised President Muhummadu Buhari for initiating the programme to aid the less privileged.
Governor Oshiomhole said: “Let me, on behalf of the government and people of Edo State, appreciate our President for making history in appropriating funds directed at children of the poor in public schools by way of one meal a day for children from primary 1 to 3, recognising that whereas many Nigerians are poor, some are poorer than others, and that it is not their fault.
“Government has responsibility to identify those ones, the poorest of the poor, not to shed crocodile tears for them or with them, but to boldly appropriate public funds structured in a way to deliver relief to these categories of our people.”
He said: “For too long, everybody laments the rising unemployed youths, and in this democracy, the youth are the most active, they are the most vibrant. Everybody says youths are leaders of tomorrow, but we are unable to define when is tomorrow. I believe President Muhammadu Buhari has defined tomorrow to mean today, and that government needs to demonstrate beyond rhetoric that not only do we reject youth idleness, but government has created a scheme to enable some youths to be engaged, including being engaged in teaching, being encouraged to acquire skills, and to make them what they should be: part of our human resource which is the most important resource any country needs to grow on a sustainable basis.”
Source: The Nation