By Mumini AbdulKareem
Senior Special Assistant (SSA) to the President on Job Creation and Youth Employment, Afobabi Imoukhuede, has said over N840 million has been invested in the economy of Kwara State in the last six months through the N-Power programme of the Federal Government.
According to him, volunteers of the scheme in the state, which presently stood at 4,657 people are paid N140 million monthly as stipends.
Imoukhuede disclosed these in Ilorin while featuring on a Radio Kwara personality interview programme, “Playing Host”.
According to him, in Kwara State alone, 5,559 opportunities were allocated to volunteers but after physical verification, 5,207 of them qualified while 4,657 have received their stipends from January to date.
He added that about N6billion investment goes into the economy of the country every month from the Social Investment Programmes of the FG, across the country amounting to N42billion in the past seven months.
He stated that it is the first time in the country’s history for any government to set aside a budget as high as N500 billion to get people out of unemployment and poverty, stressing that the N-power programme has imparted and touched the lives of the Nigerian masses.
Imoukhuede noted that the unemployment ratio among Nigerian youths which is in the bracket of 18-40 years is about 48 per cent, describing it as ridiculously and imperative for government to urgently address the issue.
The nation’s unemployment rate, he noted, moved from 14.3 per cent in the last quarter of last year due to economic recession and assured that everything is been done by the present administration to overcome the hard times Nigerians are facing.
He disclosed that the N-Power and other Social Investment Programmes (SIPs) of the government are not based on political parties as those in charge of the programme have partnered with various state governments and the Bank of Industry (BoI) to take care of volunteers through soft loans.
He, therefore, urged graduates and other unemployed youths in the country to key into the various schemes put in place by the government.
