N-power: We’re not owing any backlog — Minister

Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, Sadiya Umar Farouq, has said that there were no outstanding payments to Batches A and B beneficiaries of the N-Power programme.

Speaking on Thursday in Abuja during a two-day sensitization workshop for journalists, she said the payment was done by the Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation and all outstanding debt had been paid.

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Recall that some beneficiaries from Batch B had claimed in the past that they were owed the 30,000 naira stipends being paid by the government.

“We have sorted out all the backlogs of N-Power payments with the Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation and we have moved on to the next batch,” she said.

Farouk explained that N-Power was a component of the National Social Investment Programme which was introduced to curb the growing tide of poverty, unemployment, and social insecurity in Nigeria.

“N-Power is the job creation and economic component of the NSIP for young unemployed Nigerians.

‘It has provided temporary income-generating opportunities for 500,000 unemployed youths of Batches A and B N-Power beneficiaries.

“Currently, the ministry is about concluding the enrollment of 1,000,000 Batch C applicants in two streams of 500,000 in the first instance and another 500,000 later,” she said.

She disclosed that under the National Social Register, a total number of 6,969,230 households and 29,766,599 persons had been captured.

She also noted that about 4,000,000 households and 20,000,000 persons were to be added to the social register, as one million households and 5.6 million persons had been captured under the Conditional Cash Transfer.