The Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation, Dr Betta Edu, has disclosed the reasons behind the unpaid Stipends of the beneficiaries of Npower Programme, as the beneficiaries continue to groan over 9 months unpaid Stipends.
Speaking during Arise TV Morning Show Programme anchored by Rufai Oseni and Dr Ruben Abati, on Monday, the Minister faulted the Management of the Npower Programme over irregularities and inconsistencies, among others.
The Minister lamented that some of the beneficiaries who are complaining of not being paid are no longer supposed to be in the programme, as they have exited since last year but have insisted on recieving exit package or exit fund before they leave the programme.
Dr Edu who decried the little fund left in the Npower programme however disclosed that she has constituted a ministerial committee to verify the beneficiaries so that those eligible can be paid with the little fund left in the programme.
She said, "We need to get things very clear. First and foremost, when we came on-board, we found lots of issues, and baggage with the entire Npower Programme.
"First, we think more persons were allowed to register on the programme beyond the envelope that was provided for the programme.
"Secondly, funds were released for the payment of people under the Npower programme. However, these funds were not paid in a timely manner by the managers of the funds of Npower to the beneficiaries.
"And then the third and final point is that there are persons who are on the payment list, who are not supposed to be there. Persons who are there, who are not working, and have not given any services, but just believe that once you have been enroled, so you just continue to have payment.
"There are people whom their time within the Npower has elapsed since the year ago but they believe they should continue to get money. And so they say it's exit plan, exit money, exit funds, exit payment, I hear all sort of things. So the first thing we did was to set up a ministerial committee to look into the Npower issue, which had the Permanent Secretary of the ministry as the head, and of course we had Director of Procurement, persons from the Npower Programme, NSIP National Cordinators are parts of these committee to look into the issues of the Npower.
"I have recieved the first report from the system on ground. When I came in, the very first week I came in, I was given a report that they have paid 20,000 people. And I asked a question, 20,000 out of how many and for which period, they said it was for October to December last year, and all those people have been exited and have been sent out of the programme, and they are no longer on the programme. I said good and fine, which people are on the programme and why have they not been paid.
"In fact, it got to a point where some of the money were swept off back, just because it was allowed to sit for so long within the Npower programme. And these are the issues we are battling with. They sent the first report, I looked critically at it and asked certain questions. So they are calling back the entire team today, and they will be explaining to us what happened where. Right now we have very little funds left under the Npower, and those funds will be used to pay up whomsoever we believe should be paid after due verification that they are truly registered beneficiaries of the Npower Programme. Because a lot of the people who are just sending messages are not even on the Npower. They are supposed to have left the programme sine last year. Some of them since September last year, however they continued to say we are owed 9 months, 10 months or whatever they have to say is different ball game. So we are going to verify, and try to see how we can pay them up.
"But we are rebranding the entire job creation Npower portfolio to offer Nigerians something that is more reliable, more transperant, and people get paid on time while they deliver the services that are expected of them."
3 Comments
Batch C1 finished their program September 2022 then batch C2 start October till date, they only paid some of the beneficiarys of C2 October to December. Why are they saying they have been exited while they only paid some for only 3months?
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ReplyDeleteGod bless you Dr Betta Edu, ma since N power has started i only receive three month salary which is October to December plz ma help us out we really need dat money money 🙏🏼🙏🏼
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