Grace Omachoko
The federal government of Nigeria has announced plans for the creation of five million jobs for youths in five years through its redesigned N-Power scheme.
The minister of humanitarian affairs and poverty alleviation, Betta Edu, confirmed the development during a recent interview, announcing the age enrollment to 40 years.
According to the minister, the N-Power scheme is a component of the safety net program designed to prevent people from falling into poverty.
The minister made this assertion days after the FG suspended the scheme, a component of the National Social Investment Programme (NSIP), launched by former President Muhammadu Buhari on June 26, 2016, to combat youth unemployment and promote social development.
In her words, “We are working on five million Nigerian youth between the ages of 18 and 40 and this will be taken one million per year. On the GEEP program, we’re working on 1.5 million Nigerians,” she said.
However in the redesigned programme, Dr. Edu stressed that the N-Power scheme would be on a first-come-first-serve basis. She said the scheme and other social intervention programmes of the government are geared toward fighting poverty in the country.