N-Power: “We cannot afford grant for exited beneficiaries”
Following the rally by some N-Power beneficiaries at the National Assembly on Thursday, the Federal Government has said that it cannot afford to make their huge grant available.
The beneficiaries, who were demanding a cumulative grant of N300bn, also moved the rally to the Federal Secretariat Complex in Abuja, claiming that they were about to be exited from the N-Power plan.
The government has however made it clear that they could not make such an amount available as grant.
Addressing the press, Rhoda Iliya, said in a statement issued in Abuja on Friday that the protesters requested the Federal Government to put all 500,000 N-Power beneficiaries in paid employment as well as pay them a grant of N600,000 each.
She said, “The ministry wishes to state that this demand was not part of the agreement of engagement they signed with the Federal Government, which clearly stipulated that they will be exited after two years.”
“Furthermore, the government cannot afford the N300bn they were asking for as grant.”
The ministry noted that the Federal Government had spent hundreds of billions on N-Power applicants in the last four years and added that it was liaising with the Office of the Accountant General of the Federation, the agency responsible for payment of stipends to beneficiaries, to clarify any outstanding legitimate claim.
The ministry insisted that the Federal Government could no longer pay the exited N-Power beneficiaries forever, as new beneficiaries had already come on board.
It then added that it was trying to work with other ministries, departments and agencies such as the Central Bank of Nigeria to see how exited beneficiaries could benefit from their empowerment programmes.