The federal government-backed National Social Investment Programme (NSIP) has disbursed the sum of N13.3 billion to 15, 246 beneficiaries of the national youth empowerment programme (N-Power) in Kwara State.
Bashirah Abdulrazaq, the state focal person for the programme, on Wednesday disclosed this during an interactive session with journalists in Ilorin, the state capital.
She says that batch A beneficiaries of the N- Power scheme were engaged for a period of 42 months and were paid a total sum of N7.4 billion, adding that batch B beneficiaries spent 24 months and were paid a total sum of N5.7 billion.
“non-graduates received the sum of N10,000 every month and were engaged for a period of 24 months with a total sum of over N24 million spent”, she said.
Abdulrazaq expressed delight that the Kwara State government has replicated the youth empowerment programme codenamed K-Power, in order not to throw beneficiaries into the labour market after exiting N-Power.
The focal person, who said that about 10,000 people benefitted from the “Trader Moni” programme in the state with over N1.3 billion disbursed to them, lamented that the people were not willing to repay the loan.
“Poor masses are not ready to repay the loan after collection because of the attitude of Nigerian to anything from the government thinking it is national cake. Also, those that disbursed the money do not have records of beneficiaries like phone numbers and addresses. Thus, making it difficult to track them for repayment.
“The programme is designed to provide soft loans to boost small scale businesses in the markets which Vice President Yemi Osinbajo flagged off sometime last year to support women with N10,000 as soft loans to be paid back and then enjoy the next stage of N50,000.
“Unfortunately, many beneficiaries didn’t pay back or the channel for payment was not identified, therefore, beneficiaries could not fulfill their pledges. Though, the component is going through restructuring to seeing it achieves its objectives”, she explained.
Abdulrazaq, also disclosed that the state government has replicated the NSIP scheme in the state, tagged Kwara State Social investment programme, (KWASSIP), adding that “in view of that, Governor Abdulrahman Abdultazaq has keyed into the programme by establishing the following, ‘owo arugbo'( stipend for the aged), ‘owo isowo’ (soft loans to petty traders), ‘ounje ofe’ (homegrown free feeding programme for public primary school pupils) and K-Power for the unskilled youths.”
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