The Minister of Humanitarian Affairs Disaster Management and Social Development, Hajia Sadiya Farouq has flagged off the commencement of the Npower Batch C stream 1 empowerment Programme.
Recall that the Ministry commenced the enrolment process of 500,000 batch C beneficiaries in June last year, it later extended the number of beneficiaries to one million.
Speaking at the official flag off ceremony on Monday in Abuja, the Minister said of the one million beneficiaries, 510 enrollees are engaged in stream 1. She added that the remaining 490 will participate in the second stream of the Batch C programme.
According to her, in this Batch, 450,000 have been selected to benefit under the graduate component while 60,000 beneficiaries are non-graduate beneficiaries.
The Minister also explained that N-Power volunteer in the graduates category are entitled to a monthly stipend of N30,000 for a period of one year while non-graduate beneficiaries will receive N10,000.000 monthly stipends for a period of 9 months.
Beneficiaries are expected to be absorbed in education, agriculture, health, building, ICT and creative industry sectors.
She said”All bebeficiaries are granted an appropriate starter pack for their trade to enable them start their businesses in their chosen trades.
“The programme commenced in the Office of the Vice President back in June 2016 when the application portal was first opened. Over 750,000 applications were received, out of which, 200,000 beneficiaries were screened and selected into the first batch called Batch A.
“The portal was opened again in June 2017 where over 2.5 million applications were received, from which another 300,000 volunteers were selected into the programme as Batch B.
“Permit me at this juncture to thank His Excellency, President Muhammadu Buhari for his administration’s unwavering efforts in eradicating poverty in our country and for supporting and sustaining the National Social Investment Programme.
“With the creation of the Federal Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and the relocation of the NSIP from the OVP to the Ministry, it is worthy to note that Mr. President recognized the creativity and impact of the NPower and has graciously approved the expansion of the programme from 500,000 to 1,000,000 beneficiaries, to enable more young people to benefit.
“Based on this approval, the portal was again opened in June 2020, and over 6 million new applications were recieved. 1,000,000 beneficiaries will be mined from this as the NPower Batch C. The batch C is divided into 2 streams. Stream C1 of 510,000 beneficiaries and stream C2 for 490,000 beneficiaries. Under the Batch C1, a total of 450,000 have been selected to benefit under the graduate component, while 60,000 beneficiries will be non-graduate beneficiaries”She added.
Also Speaking, the Minister of Women Affairs, Dame Pauline Tallen said the programme is apt considering the high rate of youth unemployment in Nigeria.
She also said youth engagement will help lessen the burden of insecurity in Nigeria.
