Exited N-Power Begs Buhari Govt To Pay Outstanding July Stipends

The exiting N-Power beneficiaries have begged the President Muhammadu Buhari administration to pay the outstanding July monthly stipends.

Batch B beneficiaries are being owed one-month stipends ( July), as their duration in the famed scheme officially ended on July 31st.

The beneficiaries also request for their tools (Tab Phones) as they promised them when the programme of N-Power Batch B kicked off in August 2018.

And coupled with the fact that the exit package for these Nigerian youths which the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development has consistently maintained “will be shared soon” is vague, the outgoing volunteers are hugely disappointed in Sadiya Umar-Farouq and her handling of the N-Power project.

A message recently sent to Newsflash247 by a beneficiary, Ebenezer Adefemi lamented the N-Power situation under Farouq.

“We know what it means to be in power, you mustn’t use it against the people you are supposed to be a shield to to show how capable you are to show wickedness to your people,” Adefemi said.

“You know you have not, please try as much as possible to pay it and Allah will bless you in return. You have other positions to contest for remember, so, don’t let this damage your reputation.”

Recall that the N-Power Programme was inaugurated by the President Muhammadu Buhari in 2016 under the National Social Investment Programme (NSIP) with the mandate of lifting citizens out of poverty through capacity building, investment, and direct support.

The programme has enrolled 500,000 beneficiaries with 200,000 from Batch A which started in September 2016 and 300,000 from Batch B which kicked off in August 2018.

The beneficiaries were supposed to spend not less than 24 months on the programme but Batch A beneficiaries have spent over 40 months.

The batch A exited the program June 30 while batch B will also exited July 31.

In August 27, 2020, the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, Sadiya Umar-Farouq, had said that the Federal Government approved the payment of stipends to the exiting N-Power beneficiaries, especially for the exited Batch B.

The Minister said that the approval was given for the payment of the outstanding stipends for the exited N-Power Batches A and B beneficiaries.

Sadiya Umar-Farouq said the approval for payments up to June 2020 had been forwarded to the Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation for final checks and payments.

She said the only outstanding approval waiting to be forwarded to the accountant-general’s office was for the payment of July 2020 stipends for Batch B beneficiaries.

The humanitarian ministry, in a statement issued in Abuja, however noted that about 14,000 beneficiaries that were omitted by the AGFs office during the payment from March to June 2020 could be among those rejected by the GIPMIS payment platform.

It said this was due to discrepancies identified with their accounts as conveyed to the ministry by the AGFs office.

It said based on the report from the AGFs office, any beneficiary receiving payment from other government payment platforms would be rejected by the Government Integrated Financial Management System.

“Hence their payment will be withheld,” the ministry said in the statement issued by the minister’s Special Assistant on Media, Nneka Anibeze.

The ministry said it had requested for the details of those affected and the reasons for their rejection from the AGFs office and promised to communicate that to the affected beneficiaries.

“However, if the rejection was done in error, those affected should rest assured that they will be paid all that is due to them as soon as the error is rectified by the AGFs office,” the statement added.

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