N-Power: See How FG Monitors Beneficiaries

How FG monitors N-Power beneficiaries.

The Federal Government has revealed that it will use the Global Positioning System (GPS) to track beneficiaries of the N-Power program.

The Senior Special Adviser to the President on Social Investment and Protection Plan, Mariam Uwais, said this at a one-day public hearing on youth development and empowerment at the National Assembly.

She explained various measures put in place by the Federal Government to create jobs, stressing that the federal government is focused on empowering the unemployed youth as well as training residents in rural areas on special skill acquisitions.

“It is essentially a program for youth between the ages of 18 and 35 and applicants are meant to indicate interests, be it health, education, agriculture and so on.

“A device that has modules developed by the ministry of agriculture and health is given to each of them. That device also has GPS which monitors where they are meant to be going to, be it a school, an agricultural development unit, a primary health care centre, it monitors every movement.

“We go in and meet with the families themselves and take down their biometrics, the demographics of each family. We put it on a device which automatically ranks them into or out of the poorest in the community. We have done so in 21 states already. We train residents of the surburbs on live skills and pay them ₦5, 000 per month,” she said

She said further that the school feeding program is already operating in 19 states, aimed at encouraging menial workers at primary schools.

“We target primary school children, organise the ministries of agriculture, and education as well as SUBEB and get the names of the cooks in those communities and pay them directly. We train them on hygiene and sanitation.

“The idea is not to give the youth the impression that the government will absorb them but to make them get their hands dirty,” she explained.

Uwais, speaking on the selection process, said the beneficiaries are “selected for a period of two years and within that period, they should be able to ascertain which area they can build themselves. So, they can build their own businesses. So far, applicants who are not between the ages of 18 and 35 have been dropped out and those already employed have been rejected.”

An N-Power beneficiary, Segun Abioye reacted to claim that most beneficiaries do not go to work regularly.

He said it was not true, adding that he uses the tablet given to him upon acceptance to mark his attendance everyday he goes to work.

“I go to work from Monday to Friday and close by 2 p.m. each day. And attendance is checked by the Head of Department everyday,” he said.