FG takes off social investment scheme with initial N115bn for 500,000 graduate teachers

The Federal Government is set to take-off the first of its social investment programmes, starting with the employment of 500,000 graduates as teachers.

This will gulp N115billion of the N500 billion already provided for under the 2016 spending plan as the graduates will each get N23,000. The programme will last for a period of two years.

Spokesman for Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, made this known in a press statement on Wednesday, stating that the 500,000 Teacher Corps, nicknamed N-Power Teach, is one of the three direct job creation and training schemes expected to take off on Sunday, the 12th of June.

The graduates will be paid for the duration of their training and applications will be received through an online platform, Akande said.

Others are N-Power Knowledge which will train 25,000 Nigerians in the area of technology, and N-Power Build, which will train another 75,000 in the areas of building services, construction, utilities, hospitality and catering, automotive vocations, aluminium and gas services. All trainees will be paid during the period of their training.

President Muhammadu Buhari in his May 29th Democracy Day broadcast to the nation formally launched the scheme for which half a trillion has already been provided for under the 2016 spending plan.

According to the statement by Akande “The N-Power Teacher Corps initiative which will engage and train 500,000 young unemployed graduates, is a paid volunteer programme of a 2-year duration. Unemployed Nigerians selected and trained will play teaching, instructional, and advisory roles in primary, and secondary schools, agricultural extension systems across the country, public health and community education-covering civic and adult education.

“Besides their monthly take home pay, the selected 500,000 graduates will also get computer devices that will contain information necessary for their specific engagement, as well as information for their continuous training and development. They get to keep the devices even after exiting from the programme” he added.

The N-Power Teacher Corps initiative which will engage and train 500,000 young unemployed graduates, is a paid volunteer programme of a 2-year duration. Unemployed Nigerians selected and trained will play teaching, instructional, and advisory roles in primary, and secondary schools, agricultural extension systems across the country, public health and community education-covering civic and adult education.

The N-Power Teacher Corps programme is an invaluable opportunity for young Nigerians to make immense economic and social contributions to the nation while developing their skills. It will also help to address the problems of inadequate teachers in public schools.

Also, persons enlisted under the scheme will gain work experience and acquire key competencies through academic and non-academic capacity building programmes intended to improve their competitiveness in the workplace. Their devices will come loaded with knowledge-oriented applications and software that will enable them acquire the skills and capacity.

“Under the N-Power Knowledge scheme, there are three aspects: Creative, Technology Software and Hardware. These three sub-divisions will train 25,000 young Nigerians in all.

5000 of them would be trained in Animation, Graphic Design, Post-Production, Script-Writing. All of those under the sub-division of N-Power Knowledge-creative category.

The N-Power Knowledge scheme also has a technology category in two aspects: hardware and software. 10,000 Nigerians would be trained, and equipped in the area of software development, including web designers, and another 10,000 in hardware expertise including repair, maintain and assemble mobile phones, tablets, computers and other devices.

The N-Power Build category, he said was designed realizing that the presence of a well-trained and highly skilled youth population in any economy has direct impact on entrepreneurship/wealth creation, which in turn leads to a decline in unemployment.

N-Power Build is an accelerated training and certification (Skills to Job/Enterprise) programme that will engage and train 75,000 young unemployed Nigerians in order to build a new crop of skilled and highly competent workforce of technicians, artisans and service professionals.

The other schemes in the Buhari presidency Social Investment Programmes which would soon be rolled out in the coming weeks include the Conditional Cash Transfer that pays N5000 monthly to one million Nigerians, the Micro-Credit Scheme for more than 1.5 million Nigerians, the Home Grown School Feeding programme that will serve 5.5
million Nigerian pupils in primary school a free hot meal per day this year and the Education support grant programme for 100,000 tertiary students in Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics, STEM and education.