President Muhammadu Buhari has approved an increase in the number of N-Power Batch C beneficiaries.
Buhari ordered the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development to increase N-Power beneficiaries from the initial 400, 000 to 1,000,000.
Disclosing this on Monday, the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, Sadiya Farouq, said the order was part of Buhari’s promise to lift 100m Nigerians from poverty in the next 10 years.
Farouq said Buhari also directed an increase in the number of beneficiaries of the Home-Grown School Feeding by 5,000,000.
The Minister disclosed this at a ministerial press briefing to give account of her ministry in the last one year in Abuja.
She said: “In a bid to realise Mr. President’s commitment to lift 100 million Nigerians out of poverty in the next 10 years, the ministry places significant emphasis on youth empowerment by strategically ascertaining youth engagement as a foundational objective in implementing the following strategies: double the scope of the National Social Investment Programmes.
“Mr. President has graciously approved the expansion of all NSIP programmes, such as increase of N-Power beneficiaries from 500,000 to 1,000,000, increase GEEP beneficiaries by 1,000,000 and increase of beneficiaries of Home-Grown School Feeding by 5,000,000.”
Afriupdate learnt that over 5 million Nigerian youths applied for the N-Power Batch C recruitment.
But since August that application closed, nothing concrete has been announced about the next stage by Nigerian authorities.
READ ALSO: N-Power Batch C: Minister Reveals When Enrollment Will Commence
About N-Power
An estimated 500,000 graduate youths (Batch A and Batch B) across the country were engaged in the famed scheme.
The Nigerian youths provided services in the country’s education, health, agriculture sectors, and local government offices with a monthly N30,000 (approximately 78 US Dollars) stipend.
The N-Power was introduced in 2016 by the Buhari administration “to imbibe the entrepreneurship culture in the Nigerian youth aged between 18 and 35 — both graduates and non-graduates”.
Afriupdate understands that the Buhari government intends to expand the scheme from approximately 500, 000 to accommodate one million beneficiaries in the next phase. This, to make it one of the largest post-tertiary job schemes in Africa.
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Masha Allah