President Muhammadu Buhari has directed the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to begin direct disbursement of 3-month stipend for participants of the Special Public Works through their Bank Verification Number (BVN).
The Minister of State for Labour and Employment, Festus Keyamo, who disclosed this on Saturday via his verified Twitter handle: @fkeyamo, said he had consequently directed the NDE to begin processing of the payments.
It would be recalled that the programme, which would come to an end by April 5 had commenced January 5 after series of delay arising from opposition of the House of Representatives.
The programme, designed to employ 1,000 Nigerians from each of the 774 local government areas in the country was initially scheduled for launch on October 1, 2020 but it crossed hurdles following the power-play between Keyamo and the then Director-General of NDE, Nasir Ladan, who was later sacked.
Speaking via his handle, Keyamo said all arrangements had been concluded to ensure that fraud or double payments are eliminated, saying they will receive the alerts soon but those who registered with different names on their BVN shouldn’t expect anything.
1. President Muhammadu Buhari has graciously directed a release of the funds for the payment of stipends to the 774,000 participants of the SPW programme. I have consequently directed the NDE to begin processing the payments and participants should begin to receive payments soon.
— Festus Keyamo, SAN (@fkeyamo) March 20, 2021
“President Muhammadu Buhari has graciously directed a release of the funds for the payment of stipends to the 774,000 participants of the SPW programme.
“I have consequently directed the NDE to begin processing the payments and participants should begin to receive payments soon.
“In order to eliminate fraud and/or double payments, I have also directed that every payment to participants should be made using the BVN of their accounts so we can have an audit trail of every single payment. Those who registered with different names shouldn’t expect payments,” he wrote.
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