FACT CHECK: Is N-Power The Largest Post-Tertiary Job Scheme In Africa?

 

On June 1, while declaring he has handed off the famed N-Power scheme, Afolabi Imoukhuede, the Senior Special Assistant (SSA) to President Muhammadu Buhari on Job Creation, who also doubled as the N-Power Cluster Lead of the National Social Investment Programme (NSIP) described the scheme as "the largest post-tertiary job creation effort Pan-Africa", AllNews reports.

"The reason I live is to serve you, and this is my true story in October 2015 wherein I was privileged to be appointed as the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Job Creation.

"In serving you, was to work tirelessly night and day alongside my colleagues to Mr President's 2015 campaign promise of Job Creation and economic empowerment for Nigeria Youths.

"This gave birth to the systematic conceptualization, planning and implementation of the N-Power Job Creation and Employability/Entrepreneurship Enhancement component of the National Social Investment Programme (NSIP), and it remains till date the largest post-tertiary job creation effort Pan-Africa," Imoukhuede had stated.

Speaking at a town hall meeting in Abuja, the Nigerian capital in November 2018, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, the Vice President of Nigeria declared that the Muhammadu Buhari administration will expand the N-Power scheme to accommodate one million beneficiaries in the next phase.

According to the nation's No.2 citizen, the aim was to make the programme the largest post-tertiary job scheme in Africa.

“The idea of N-Power is supposed to be the government’s own programme of direct employment and training.

"At the moment, we have taken up to 500,000 and in the next phase we are looking at another 200,000 and closely followed by another 300,000.

“In all, we will be employing up to a million, and that will be the largest post-tertiary job programme in entire Africa.

"The reason why we have done this is because of the employment problems that we have.

"We may not be able to engage everybody but at least government must give some direct provision of jobs,” Osinbajo had said.

Batch A will exit June 30, 2020, and Batch B will exit the programme on July 31, 2020, according to the Federal Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development.

Sometime this year, the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs gave the figure of the outgoing enrollees who are being paid a stipend of N30, 000 monthly to be 473, 137.

N-Power: 1 million slots become 400,000...

Speaking to newsmen after her meeting with federal lawmakers in Abuja in April 2020, Sadiya Umar-Farouq, the nation's Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management, and Social Development disclosed the government's 'fresh plan'.

According to Farouq, Nigeria will soon engage the service of 400, 000 N-Power beneficiaries.

"We have come up with the enrolment of the new beneficiaries of the N-Power - 400, 000 beneficiaries are going to be enrolled very soon," Farouq said at the time.

The portal for registration - https://npower.fmhds.gov.ng/site/ - has been receiving staggering applications, but the N-Power 2020 recruitment is a 20% decline from the tally of two batches enlisted over two years.

READ ALSO: N-Power Recruitment 2020: Scheme Sends 'Crucial' Message To Applicants

Of Africa's nearly 420 million youth aged 15-35, 1/3 are unemployed and discouraged, another 1/3 are vulnerably employed, and only one in six is in wage employment. Youth face roughly double the unemployment rate of adults, with significant variation by country. #EmploymentFacts pic.twitter.com/LceGpxrWFX

— Summit Recruitment (@SummitRecruitke) June 22, 2020

N-Power: AllNews' verdict

The 20% decline from the current tally means that the N-Power scheme is the largest post-tertiary job scheme in Africa is a hype.

The claim of N-Power being the largest post-tertiary job scheme on the continent cannot be proven.