News Obiaks News

An official has disclosed that the federal government is working on how to disengage over 200,000 N-Power beneficiaries.
        According to reports, the president’s senior special assistant on social investment, Maryam Uwais, during an interview with NTA, said she is discussing with the Ministry of Finance on the next plan. She said: “We are trying to see how we can address some of these gaps through these N-power beneficiaries that are meant to be disengaged by end of the year. We are looking at how to make loans available to them, it has not be finalized yet with the finance ministry. The president’s former special assistant on N-Power, Afolabi Imoukhuede, had in 2017 stated that not less than 200,000 out of 500,000 youths had been empowered for the first batch of the scheme in 2016. The government said it had “big plans” for the 2016 beneficiaries, even though they were due to be released in 2018. In a 2018 statement, the government said: “The 2016 beneficiaries will proceed into an enhancement programme as you continue to give your service and earn your monthly stipend.” The government plans however have remained unclear. 2016 N-Power beneficiaries had observed a message on their personal dashboards last week, outlining that they had options of transitioning to community police, teaching, farming and mobile agents and access to 100,000 naira loan to start a community business. However, there’s no official statement about the transition yet.