N-Power portal to reopen June 17 – Minister

The Minister of State for Budget and National Planning, Hajiya Zainab Ahmed, has advised youths to apply for the Federal Government’s National Social Investment Programme (N-SIP) which will be reopened on June 27.

Mrs Ahmed said in Abuja yesterday that the government would scale up the N-SIP to accommodate more beneficiaries. N-SIP is a Federal Government programme aimed at reducing poverty and improving livelihoods of vulnerable groups such as unemployed youths, women and children.

The programme has so far empowered over 1.6 million Nigerians through its four components: N-Power, National Home Grown School Feeding Programme, Conditional Cash Transfer, and Government Enterprise and Empowerment Programme.

She said that the Ag. President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, had directed that the online portal should be reopened on June 27 to give Nigerian youths the opportunity to apply for the next batch. Ahmed, however, advised youths to also take advantage of the opportunity to empower themselves.

“There is opportunity in the N-Power Programme for employment.

“There is opportunity in the GEEP for you to get finances to be able to start businesses.

“Please, this is real, it is working, join the process and be a beneficiary,’’ she said.

The minister claimed that the process was delayed initially due to an effort to eliminate fraudulent applicants and to make the process transparent. She said that programme had not been able to attain its set target because of the delay in starting its actual implementation.

“The deployment and release of funds didn’t start till October 2016 and it is so because we want to make sure that the programme is planned properly.

“We want to make sure that each beneficiary has a bank account linked to BVN; we are targeting the right people, not just people nominated by big people.”

Ahmed said that the programme was showcased at the 2nd Year Commemorative Event of the Federal Government under President Muhammadu Buhari on May 29.

She added that the event, with the theme: “A Smile for Every Nigerian,’’ recorded testimonies of beneficiaries across the country.

“We are thanking God for witnessing the confirmation that the work we have done is actually yielding results.