Recruitment of artisans for the 774,000 Special Public Works (SPW) programme of the Federal Government is being rounded off in states; it was gathered at the weekend.

However, some states that have been unable to complete the process have been granted one week extension.

Minister of State for Labour and Employment Festus Keyamo said the October 1 commencement of the programme is on course.

As at Monday’s deadline to complete the recruitment, Yobe and Ebonyi states have submitted their list of beneficiaries.

Keyamo said on Monday that “There was a board meeting of the National Directorate of Employment (NDE) chaired by me. We looked at the situation and said in deserving cases we may extend for a few days, for some states that have not submitted their final lists.

“We are still looking at October 1 to begin nationwide. There are one or two internal issues in terms of logistics we are dealing with, but we will overcome that..

“We are lining those who will go to their different states and regions to flag off for us. That will be made known in the next few days.”

Keyamo said six banks would commence capturing of successful applicants for the jobs this week.

“The banks will soon start capturing them because the first payment will be at the end of October.

“The banks will start capturing them in different local government areas. We have concluded arrangements with six different banks. We have even collected the forms.”

The SWP is designed to employ 1,000 persons from each of the 774 Local Government councils in the country.

Each of the participants will be paid N20,000 per month duration.

Participants will do public works as designed by the NDE in their council areas.

About 10 states are putting finishing touches to the lists. They are Lagos, Osun, Rivers, Delta, Cross River, Akwa Ibom, Anambra, Adamawa, Nasarawa and Sokoto.

Chairman of the selection committee in Lagos, Chief Mutiu Are, said the selection process was about 95 per cent completed.

He said the list of the successful applicants would be submitted on Friday.

About 30,000 people registered for the scheme in the state.

A member of the committee in Osun State and the Senior Special Assistant to Governor Adegboyega Oyetola on Youth Affairs and Social Mobilization, Mr Kehinde Ayatunji, said they were “still in the process of gathering data from councils in the state’’

He added that over 200,000 people applied for the SWP in the state and 30,000 are to be picked.

Chairman of the committee in Rivers State Dr. Innocent Barikor said: “We are through with the application and selection processes. We are on the documentation process.”

His counterpart in Akwa Ibom State, Mr. Inyang Unya, said the committee was grappling with the selection process from the thousands of applications.

Unya said: ‘’As you are already aware, because of the unemployment in the country, we have more than 10,000 people for the 1,000 slots allotted to each council area. ‘’ The recruitment will be wrapped up on Friday in Delta State, but none of the three senators had submitted their list of nominees.

“Only three members of House of Representative, no senator has submitted. The governor has fully submitted. But, the deadline for submission is Friday. It is to meet that deadline and submit.”

The committee in Cross River State said it was working round the clock to beat the deadline.

“We are getting back the completed forms and working round the clock to meet up,” said committee chairman Maria Ukpanyang. In Anambra State, the chairman of the committee, Sir, Uzoma Igbonwa, said the list of the successful applicants would be sent to the NDE this week.

Adamawa State committee will today meet to review the list of the shortlisted.

The Chairman of the committee in Nasarawa State, Kassim Mohammed, said: “We are done and the list is ready for submission. We are good to go in Nasarawa.”

His Sokoto State counterpart, Dr. Ibrahim S. Muhammad, said the process was almost concluded in the state.

He explained that the committee would use the one week extension to tidy up its list.

“We have over 23,000 applicants. It is gladdening to say that most of the applicants are those within the age bracket of 18-35. This is so because the larger number of unemployed are youths.”

In Ebonyi State, the chairman of the committee, Edward Nkwegu, said his committee completed the registration process and submitted the documents last week.

He added that some Persons Living With Disability and less privileged persons were also selected as successful applicants.

A member of the Katsina State committee, Rev. Nelson Onyekachukwu, said they submitted the list of successful applicants last week.

He thanked the Federal Government for the programme, saying it would help people, especially those at the grassroots.” (Text, excluding headline, courtesy The Nation)

Update news