The Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation, Betta Edu, has called on the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) to investigate the non-payment of allowances to some beneficiaries of the N-Power programme.
The minister said that her ministry has written to the anti-graft agency to look into the matter and recover the funds from the consultant who was in charge of the disbursement.
The minister made this disclosure in an interview on television monitored by Newsflash Nigeria. She said that the N-Power programme, which was designed to provide job opportunities and skills to young Nigerians, was suspended due to some irregularities and gaps in the structure and implementation.
She said that the programme had about 360,000 beneficiaries across various sectors, such as education, agriculture, health and others.
She explained that the consultant who was contracted to pay the beneficiaries had failed to do so despite having enough funds in his account.
She said that the consultant only paid 20,000 beneficiaries out of 360,000 when she assumed office as a minister. She said that she questioned why the consultant was paying in trickles when he had the money to pay everybody. She said that she ordered him to return the funds to the government account after an initial audit.
“We are conducting further investigations as to why young Nigerians who put in their efforts were not paid when you have the money sitting there.
“The week I arrived as a minister, they quickly rushed to pay 20,000 out of the number of persons they were supposed to cover which was about 360,000 persons, they paid 20,000 and then the next week they said they wanted to pay another 40,000 and the question was why are you paying them in trickles when you have monies enough to pay everybody who at least you owed for a certain amount of month and so all of these were all the grey areas we had with the N-Power and at this point for investigations to go on fully without any form of obstruction, we had to suspend the programme.
“Before the suspension, we had about 360,000 people and these are drawn from across the nation serving in education, Agro, health and about five other areas.”
On whether the irregularities that led to the suspension of the programme were from the government or the consultant side, she said:
“Yes is it just one private organization, it’s just one consultant that is involved in the disbursement.
“So the funds were transferred from the government account into the account of the consultant who was expected to pay, however, that fund has sat there for quite a while.
“We have already written; first we’ve asked for a return of the complete funds that are in his possession after the initial audit into the N-Power CBN government account.”
She also said that the government was conducting further investigations to ascertain why some beneficiaries who worked diligently were not paid. She said that the government had created a portal where beneficiaries who have complaints can submit their details and evidence of their work. She said that the government had also set up a situation room and a committee to handle the investigation of N-Power.
“So one of the things which we are bringing on board is to create a portal where people who have complaints can put this complaint out. We have already created a situation room, we have created a committee that is handling the investigation of N-Power and we are going to put out the portal detail so Nigerians whether in Batch A, Batch B or Batch C who have truly worked and we can get evidence from their place of primary assignment that they truly worked and they were not paid can put in their complaints which will be addressed by this government.”
She assured that all beneficiaries who are genuinely owed will be paid by President Bola Tinubu. She said that the government is not interested in any form of secrecy or cover-up, but in transparency and accountability. She said that the ICPC has been notified and is working on the case.
“The anti-graft agency is already on notice and they’re investigating the matter. The ICPC has been written to because this is government money and we need to recover it to pay all those who truly have been owed. Like we said all young people who have been owed, President Tinubu will ensure that you are completely paid for the months you worked.”
On how the beneficiaries will be selected upon the completion of the probe, she said: “For N-Power, it will be based on first come first serve, as far as you meet the criteria for each category, you would be given a chance on first come first serve.
“We are not necessarily going to allocate quotas to states, we are rather going to be using the local governments and the reason is so that we can take it as far down to the grassroots as possible and give a bigger opportunity for everyone.”
She also hinted that the allowances for beneficiaries may be reviewed based on proposals, adding that it was subject to review of the minimum wage.
The minister stated: “So the present pay right now at some point they were paid N30,000 at some point they were paid N20,000 and I was told that’s it exit package for them but we are going to have a unified payment for everyone who will come on the scheme. We are still working that out, it’s still a work in progress we have made certain proposals we have proposals of N50,000 we have proposals of N60,000 and some have said that we should wait until we have that agreement on what the new minimum wage is and then pay them according to the new minimum wage so that’s all the discussion that we have on the table while we are restructuring.”
She also spoke about the new N-Power scheme, which she called Renewed Hope Job Creation Scheme. She said that the scheme will target five million youths between 18 and 40 years in one year.
She said that the scheme will be more robust, efficient and impactful than the previous one. She said that the scheme will have a better monitoring and evaluation system, as well as a sustainability plan for the beneficiaries.
