The N-Power scheme, put in place by the Federal Government as part of its promise to create job employments for Nigerian youths, kicked off in December, 2016 amidst hope of reducing the burden of youth unemployment in Nigeria.
Selected candidates are to be paid N30,000 monthly for the two-year duration of the scheme.
Newsroom gathered that the Federal Government had already disbursed the required funds to each states, and the states are only responsible for posting candidates to their various job designations.
Out of a total of 200,000 candidates selected across all states in the country, Lagos state is responsible for 11,000 candidates – the largest of all states.
While some states had their verification processes ahead of the December 1 resumption date for candidates, Lagos didn’t hold its own till mid-January.
“We were supposed to do our verification before December 1 like other states, but it didn’t happen till mid-January,” a candidate, name withheld, told a reporter.
After the candidates eventually got verified, they have been made to wait endlessly for their letters of appointment. While their employment status remains shrouded in uncertainty, their counterparts in states like Ondo and Oyo have already received salaries for December and January.
“A friend of mine in Oyo confirmed to me that he had received salaries for December and January,” the candidate, who quit his part-time job in December in anticipation of his employment, told us.
“At the moment, we are not even sure whether we will receive the January and February salary, let alone December.”
According to the candidate, the National Orientation Agency (NOA) has cited the large number of candidates as the reason for the delay in commencement of the programme in Lagos.
The candidates, tired of the endless wait, decided to embark on a protest last week Wednesday, but officials appealed to them to shelve the protest with a promise that their case would be resolved before Monday (February 27).
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