N500bn Intervention: FG shortlists 200,000 graduates for employment

The Federal Government says it has shortlisted 200,000 graduates for employment under its N-Power scheme.

The 200,000 selected graduates in the first batch are currently being screened to obtain Banking Verification Numbers (BVN) to ensure that their N30,000 stipend is paid directly into their account when they resume.

Presidential Media aide, Laolu Akande in a chat with journalists in Abuja disclosed that as part of the selection process the government’s
team took 40 percent of the mass application per state and 60 percent from the North East and states that recorded low applications.

N500 billion was budgeted for the social investment Programme in the 2016 budget and officials say the government is rolling out the first
four programmes which will continue till 2017.

The Government targets to hire 500,000 unemployed graduates in the job scheme. Other schemes include the homegrown school feeding Programme, Conditional Cash Transfer, CCT and the Enterprise promotion Programme.

15,000 Nigerians from Borno State applied in the first phase of the N-Power scheme while Enugu recorded over 20,000 applications.

States like Zamfara and Bayelsa recorded the lowest with 6,000 and 7,000 applications respectively.

“We are aware that in several parts of the country, there are reported instances where local leaders of goodwill ensured that the
people-unemployed graduates and youths-who did not readily have access to the internet were adequately taken care of in different ways
including creating online registration points and outlets” Laolu said adding that the site will soon be reopened for the next batch.

Asked how the selection was done “Presidency officials collaborated actively with the Ministries of Agriculture & Natural Resources,
Health and other government agencies all through the process. There were no foreign consultants involved, nor is one needed.” He further
explained that to make up the selection of the first 200,000, there were three criteria thus: 40% selected based on the number of applications per state, a special mark-up for the 6 states of the Northeast and a discretionary addition for states with low numbers of
applicants.

The Presidential media aide also disclosed no online application is required for the for the Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) for the
Social Investment programmes.

For the CCT N5,000 will be paid to a total of one million of the most vulnerable and the poorest Nigerians in the first year Akande
disclosed. The N5,000 monthly stipend will be paid directly to the beneficiaries based on their Biometric Verification Number (BVN)

He added that so far no money has been disbursed for this reason.