FG has renamed Npower to Renewed Hope Job Creation Programme (RHJCP) and revealed when payment of allowance backlog will commence.
ENTRUST REPORTERS had earlier reported that federal government said it would commence payment of the nine-month backlog to Npower beneficiaries in November.
Egbuwalo said He said the funds have been recovered from the existing payment service providers and the payment would be done in instalments.
In a statement signed by Jamaludeen Kabir, the national communication manager of the National Social Investment Programme Agency (NSIPA), said that Egbuwalo revealed this during a meeting with some N-Power beneficiaries.
It was gathered by ENTRUST REPORTERS that the N-Power Management has proposed a N60,000 Monthly Npower Stipends payment for the prospective Beneficiaries of the renewed Hope Npower Skill Up Nigeria Program.
The Honourable Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty alliviation Dr. Betta Edu disclosed this information in the latest interview she had with Channels TV.
According to him, there is a new proposal of a unified payment of N50,000 to N60,000 compare to present payment of N30,000 for the prospective Beneficiaries of the renewed Hope Npower Skill Up Nigeria Program.
He stated further that they are waiting until they have the agreement on what the new minimum wage will be and then pay them according to the new minimum wage.
The N-power program currently under restructuring by the new management and will commence fully by January 2024 when the restructuring would have completed
The age limit has also been extended the N-power enrollment from 18-35 to 18-40 years under a new restructured program aimed at capturing five million youths in five years.
N-Power National Programme Manager, Dr. Akindele Egbuwalo, while reacting over the temporary suspension of the program as earlier announced, said the program is being restructured and expanded to cover one million beneficiaries each year for five years and allow more people to participate across the age brackets.
In a statement from the Special Adviser to the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation, Dr. Betta Edu, Rasheed Zubair, Egbuwalo appealed to Nigerians to understand the rationale behind the temporal suspension of the N-Power programme and the subsequent restructuring it is undergoing, saying the federal government was working to restore confidence in the programme.
This Nigeria news platform understands that Betta Edu stated that the payment of Npower beneficiaries will commence in January 2024.
New beneficiaries will be enrolled by January 2024 under the new Npower programme now known as Hope Skills Acquisition Programme. However, as the Minister states, backlog payment of verified exited Npower batch C2 beneficiaries will be cleared.
The noted that, the Npower programme which was initiated by the Buhari Administration has lately received backlash on poor management. The Beneficiaries are being owed 8 months of unpaid stipends, lot of issues and baggage in the entire Npower programme.
Firstly, more persons were allowed to register for the program beyond the envelope that was provided for the program.
Secondly, beneficiaries of N-power funds were not paid in a timely manner by the managers of the funds released.
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 were there and are not working and have not given any service but just believe that once you are enrolled you will just continue to have payment.
The new Minister of the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty alliviation Dr Betta Edu has been working to restore the lost glory of the Npower programme since she was sworn as Minister.
To this end, the Minister announced that the Npower programme has totally been overhauled and will be upgraded so that the Beneficiaries can be truly empowered
