N-Power beneficiaries Receive Oct, Nov Allowances
The Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, has paid the October and November 2019 back log allowances of beneficiaries of the N-Power programme before December 20, 2019 as promised by the Minister, Hajiya Sadiya Umar Farouk.
It would be recalled that, the Minister has on December 2, 2019 at a Press Conference promised to pay the backlog of the allowances before December 20th, 2019, and also explained that the payments were being processed while the Social Investment Programme (SIP) was being moved to the Ministry in line with a Presidential directive.
The N-Power programme has 500,000 volunteers who are engaged as teachers, health workers and agricultural extension officers, among other fields. They are deployed to various locations throughout the country offering their services to Nigerians. Each participant is paid a stipend of N30, 000 monthly.
It can be recalled that when the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development was created, President Muhammadu Buhari directed that the Social Investment Programme (SIP) will be under the purview of the new Ministry.
The SIP has four components namely Conditional Cash Transfer, the N-Power programme, the Homegrown School Feeding Programme and the Government Enterprise and Empowerment Programme.
The four programmes have over 13 million direct beneficiaries and an estimated 44 million secondary beneficiaries across the country.
The Minister assured that the kind of promptness demonstrated in the payment of the backlog as promised will be sustained so that the programmes will continue to achieve their goals of improving the wellbeing of Nigerians.
Meanwhile, the Federal Government has proactively paid suppliers of foodstuff and cooks under the Home Grown School Feeding Programme for January 2020 to ensure that feeding the 9.9 million pupils in the participating States and the FCT starts immediately schools resume in the next two weeks.
The Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, Hajiya Sadiya Umar Farouq announced this in Abuja, explaining that the payment covered the cost of feeding pupils in the 33 participating states.
The Minister disclosed that the funds were released in December to give the suppliers and cooks adequate time to procure and stock foodstuff to ensure that pupils eat their meals timely.
“We believe that paying these funds early is critical to the success of the programme. We do not want any hitches, and we want to ensure that the school children are fed on time, and without any excuses,” the Minister emphasised.
The Minister warned that the Federal Government would not accept any drop in the nutritional quality of the meals given to the children.
Hajiya Sadiya said the Federal Government has gladly received reports of improved attendance in the schools and improved hygiene among the pupils, adding that these outcomes were some of the reasons for setting up the programme.
Under the National Home Grown School Feeding Programme a total of 9,963,726 pupils are fed in 54, 942 schools across the country served by 107,862 suppliers and cooks.
The programme is one of the components of the Social Investment Programme (SIP) of the Federal Government under the purview of the Federal Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development.
