TheCable

The federal government says it will suspend the N-Power programme indefinitely for proper investigation and restructuring. 

Betta Edu, minister of humanitarian affairs and poverty alleviation, disclosed this during an interview on TVC on Saturday.

N-Power is a social investment scheme set up by the administration of former President Muhammadu Buhari in 2016.

The objective was to address issues around youth unemployment and entrepreneurship.

Edu said a statement would be put out soon announcing the official suspension of the programme.

She said the decision was prompted by irregularities within the scheme, adding that the government has initiated an investigation into fund usage since the inception of the initiative.

She added that certain recipients are often absent from their workplaces while still anticipating monthly allowances.

Edu said some of the beneficiaries in batch one and batch two ought to have exited the programme in 2021 and September 2022 respectively but are still on the payroll.

“So basically, we will suspend the programme for now until we are done with proper investigation of the N-Power programme and the utilisation of funds in the N-Power programme to know how many persons exactly are on the programme right now,” she said.

“We want to know how many persons are owed, and the amount they are owed. We are totally restructuring N-Power and expanding it.

“There is a lot going on. We met people who were supposed to have exited the programme last year and they are still claiming that they are still teaching.

“Sometimes we contact the school or the places where they are working and they are not there. They are not working yet they keep claiming that they are being owed eight or nine months stipends.

“About 80 percent of them are not working yet they are claiming salaries.

“All of these challenges which we have to work with and of course, at the back end, looking at those who are managing it, the consultants that were brought onboard to ask them why money is not being paid to people who should be paid.”

The minister added that President Bola Tinubu’s renewed hope agenda will ensure that more Nigerians benefit from social investment schemes.

In early September, Edu had disclosed that a revamp of the N-Power was underway.