By Tayo Joseph Lagos, Nigeria.
The Oyo State Government has attributed mismatched records and omission of account numbers as some of the reasons causing the delay in payment of stipends to the beneficiaries N Power programme in the state.
The Focal Person/State Commissioner for Women Affairs and Social Development, Atinuke Osunkoya, while giving a situation report on the N-Power job creation and empowerment, an initiative of the Social Investment Programme of the Federal Government of Nigeria, stated that the FG pays stipends directly into beneficiaries’ bank accounts thereby eliminating any direct payment inputs from states.
The Focal Person disclosed that some of the supposed beneficiaries did not qualify at the verification stage as they supplied wrong or insufficient information, stressing that some out of those who qualified were paid but the bank returned their money, perhaps because of type of account or dormancy of account.
Osunkoya urged unpaid beneficiaries to confirm their status and reason for non-payment from the Ministry of Women Affairs, noting that the beneficiaries are already aware that the lists of unpaid beneficiaries have been pasted.
“If the applicant’s non-payment problem is related to their bank account details, they need to confirm with their banks the status and account details; ensuring that details tally; then Log into npvn.npower.gov.ng or send an email with their correct details to [email protected] Beneficiaries of the programme are implored to visit the Ministry of Women Affairs,” she added.
Osunkoya further explained that the Federal Government shortlisted beneficiaries for the programme which was designed to help young Nigerians acquire and develop life-long skills to become solution providers in their communities and become players in the domestic and global markets.
According to her, “through N-Power, young Nigerians will be empowered with the necessary tools to go on and create, develop, build, fix and work on exceptional ideas, projects and enterprises that will change our communities, our economy and our nation. The N-Power programme is for all eligible young Nigerians looking for gainful engagement designed for ages between 18 and 35.
“Deployment to beneficiaries’ places of primary assignment is ongoing. For now, the Federal Government is targeting N-Teach, N-Agro, N-Health. Deployment is therefore namely to Primary Schools, Junior Secondary Schools, State Agriculture Development Projects and Primary Health Care Centres respectively.
“The National Orientation Agency (NOA) & National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) handled the verification of beneficiaries as well as collation of verification data at the State level while the Oyo State Government Ministry of Women Affairs and Social Development is coordinating the programme at the state, deploying the beneficiaries and of beneficiaries and attending to general issues and enquiries and forwarding same to Abuja for necessary action in a bid to ensure that no one is disenfranchised,” Osunkoya stated.
