Fg’s Social Investment Programme: Online Application Not Required For The Poorest And Vulnerable Nigerians
SAN FRANCISCO, November 04, (THEWILL) – The Federal Government has declared that online applications is not a requirement for the poor and vulnerable Nigerians for whom the monthly N5,000 Conditional Cash Transfer of the Buhari Social Investment programme is designed for.
This clarification was made by Laolu Akande, the Senior Special Assistant on Media in the Office of the Vice President, in a chat with the press, as he responded to questions arising from some misleading reports in the media regarding the implementation of the N500B Social Investment Programmes of the Buhari administration.
“While we understand the need for an ongoing public discussion of this unprecedented budgetary allocation in favour of the Nigerian people especially the poorest and the most vulnerable, it is not correct to claim any form of mismanagement or marginalization whatsoever,” he said.
“There has not been any disbursement from the allocated fund not to talk of any kind of mismanagement at all. While it is true that funds are being released for the social investment programmes, it is rather preposterous for now to say there is no evidence where the funds have gone to.
“As an administration noted for its transparency, we intend to fully keep Nigerians posted of all financial expenditure in line with extant laws of the country.
“Of the series of social investment programmes we have outlined, only the job creation scheme-N-Power requires an online registration from unemployed graduates and non-graduate youths.
“No online registration of any kind is required to access the Conditional Cash Transfer, CCT, which would pay N5000 monthly to the most vulnerable and the poorest Nigerians-a total of one million in the first year.
“it is important to explain, again, for the benefit of clarity, that the requirement for online application for the N-Power job scheme makes absolute sense considering that all together the Federal Government is planning to hire half a million unemployed Nigerian graduates.
“We are all witnesses to the calamity that occurred in the past when a manual effort was made to hire large number of Nigerian youths. It led to needless deaths and outright chaos.
“Asking university graduates, for instance, to apply online is not such a cumbersome or unattainable requirement considering that JAMB, NECO, WAEC applications have all been done online for a while now in this country.
“What online applications do is to afford us as a government an efficient and effective means to process the applications and select the graduates and non-graduate youths for the N-Power job and training programmes.
“It is also not tenable to argue that people in Maiduguri for instance which today plays hosts to tonnes of international NGOs cannot apply online or are denied internet access. Such a claim simply flies in the face of the fact. Almost 15,000 Nigerians from Borno State applied in the first application series of N-Power schemes online.
“In any case 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 by creating online registration points and outlets.
“The selection process for the first batch of 200,000 Nigerians to be engaged in the N-Power process has now been completed, and that their official engagement is now awaiting the completion of BVN verification so that they would be paid directly.”
Story by Oputah David