Nigeria Jubilee Fellows Programme (NJFP) is a youth employability initiatives partnership between the Federal Government of Nigeria implemented by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) with funding from the European Union.
The programme aims to connect 20,000 recent graduates from any discipline annually. Beneficiaries are expected to use the opportunities presented to them and maximize their 12 months of engagement. The programme was launched on August 31, 2021.
It is two years now since the launching of the programme but out of the 20,000 fellows that have been shortlisted, less than 3000 have been matched so far. We really don’t know what is delaying the matching of the fellows as there are many private and public sectors available in the country.
The programme is associated with many problems because even the 3000 successfully matched fellows are complaining about delays in the monthly payment of their stipend, inability to access the portal to log into their dashboard for attendance, waiting for the onboarding, issues of outstanding payment and many more.
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Other unmatched fellows have started giving up on the programme even though they were shortlisted.
Although NJFP officials have provided phone numbers for any of the fellows that have complaints, most times the officials do not respond to such calls.
In an attempt to show their concern about the above-mentioned problems, the fellows call for peaceful protest on their Twitter handle where they tag NJFP officials UNDP and EU to show their concern.
We are calling on the federal government and the stakeholders involved in this programme to urgently address the problems associated with it. They should bear that it is only by directly engaging and working with young people, supporting them and letting them progress that Nigeria will be able to achieve inclusive and sustainable growth.
Muhammad Maidala Umar Azare. [email protected]
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