The federal government has said it will take 774,000 people who participated in the just concluded Extended Special Public Works (ESPW) programme through Basic Business Training (BBT) in order to establish them with their 3 months N60,000 stipends.
The spokesman of the National Directorate of Employment (NDE), Edmund Onwuliri, who disclosed this in a statement on Wednesday, said the training was part of the exit strategy being rolled out for the participants of the programme.
Onwuliri, however, did not disclose the amount the agency would expend on the training but stated that it is scheduled to hold at a central venue in each of the three senatorial districts across the states and the Federal Capital Territory.
According to him, the participants are expected to acquire the relevant skills that will enable them identify and manage micro and small businesses of their own after they exit the ESPW.
He said: “While engaged in the three-month programme, participants were actively engaged in activities within the public works sector where they provided services such as environmental sanitation services in public places, drainage clearing and desilting, vegetation control, road traffic management and other community based and environment specific public works services.
“While providing such services, participants were paid a stipend of N20,000.00 per month for the period of three months that the programme was designed to last.
“One thousand unskilled persons were recruited from each of the 774 local government areas of the nation.
”It is expected that the training will further enhance the capacity of the participants to migrate from the transient job phase to a sustainable and self-reliant status thereby reducing mass unemployment among the unskilled and unemployed across the country.”
Daily Trust reports that the participants of Programme which was implemented by the Federal Ministry of Labour and Employment through the National Directorate of Employment (NDE), are yet to receive their stipends in full more than two months after completion of the programme.
