NEXIT: N-power Beneficiaries decry unabated Silence, opt for National Protest

The Exited beneficiaries of the N-power Program who had been awash by the utopia of several promises from the Federal Government which most recently is the NEXIT Plan, have condenmed the incessant delay in the Programme implementation, and the unabated communication gap that has continued to taunt the struggling beneficiaries since after their disengagement from the N-power Programme.

According to the N-power Beneficiaries, there have been several promises by the Federal Government not to let them back to the job market after the completion of their empowerment programme which advertently birthed the NEXIT Plan https://nexit-fmhds.cbn.gov.ng, a collaborative idea of the Federal Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development and the Central Bank of Nigeria  (CBN) to transit the N-power Beneficiaries into the CBN Intervention Programmes.

Lamenting the ambiguity of the plan, the N-power Beneficiaries stated that in several tweets from the Federal Government, there has been a defined intention of transiting them into the CBN AGSMEIS Loan Scheme or the Anchor Borowers Programme until recently the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, Sadiya Umar Farouk announced a change of plan, stating equivocally that 200,000 beneficiaries will be engaged as financial services operators under the Shared Agent Network Expansion Facility (SANEF), 30,000 beneficiaries as geospatial experts and enumerators in the Economic Sustainability Plan’s Mass Agric programme while others will have the option of benefiting from the Government Enterprise and Empowerment Programme (GEEP) micro-enterprise loans as contained in The Nation https://thenationonlineng.net/fg-announces-new-plan-for-n-power-beneficiaries.

The body of the N-power Volunteers, the 36 States and FCT N-Power Representatives and the N-power Youths Congress (NYC) perturbed by the inexactness of the plans have in separate statements demanded clarity of the Federal Government intentions towards them among others things in order to ameliorate the hardship brought upon them and their families by their sudden disengagement from the N-power Programme.

The 36 States and FCT N-Power Representatives had requested that:

1. They (the 36 States and FCT N-Power Representatives) should be brought and shown the template of the purported Transition plan.

2. The Transition Plan ( whether absorption into Government agencies or meaningful grants/Loan for entrepreneurship) must be ready and clearly defined.

3. Payments of over 14, 000 Unpaid Volunteers from the Month of March to July, 2020 must begin immediately as all documents needed for this have been supplied by the volunteers 2 months ago.

4. Payments of Backlogs to Volunteers being owed in different months must be paid immediately.

5. All Batch B devices and some batch A devices must be delivered immediately as this forms part of the agreement of engagement adding that nothing short of the above request will be accepted.

The N-power Youth Congress while declaring 14th February, 2021 Ultimatum demanded that:

1. N-power Beneficiaries selected for permanent jobs be confirmed with appointment letters.

2. Those selected for grant/Loan be given at least 1 million naira each.

3. Those considered for loan be treated fairly. That is,

* 2 years moratorium

* 3% interest rate per annum

* Reasonable amount enough for the respective purposes be given.

4. Those still finding it difficult to register the Nexit Portal should be given attention to that effect.

The N-power Beneficiaries who decried what they described as demeaning silence and inhuman treatments stated that since their plight have remained a playground of political promises, they would be left with no option than to continue on National Protests to let the world know what they have been through and what they are going through as citizens of Nigeria who have dedicated their years in a special service to the Nation.