By AHMED UBANDOMA

Some enrollees of the Federal Government’s N-Power Programme on Monday decried the continuous delay of payment of their N30,000 monthly stipends.

The beneficiaries who spoke to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in separate interviews in Abuja said, the continued delay of payment of the thirty thousand monthly stipends is becoming worrisome.

Mr Francisco Noah, a beneficiary of the N-Teach segment of Batch C1, who teaches at a Nomadic School in Keffi, Nasarawa State said, the delay had forced him to stop attending to pupils in the school.

He said the condition was critical for him because sometimes transportation fee was a bit difficult for him to go to the Nomadic School.

Noah who expressed dismay over the delay said the last time he received his stipend was in November 2022.

“Ours is a two-year programme which we started around January 2021 and to end this December.

”But since we started, I was only paid for 12 months and the last money I received was in November 2022,” he said.

Mr Usman Dantala, a beneficiary of Batch C2 in the Agro segment of the said, is owed nine months with several promises of payment.

Dantala, who was enrolled into the programme in October 2022, said he was only paid for three months since the beginning of his participation in the programme.

“I was enrolled into the N-Power Programme in Gwagwalada Area Council Secretariat October l 2022 under the Agro segment of the Scheme.

“I have done all the necessary documentation and verification since then I was only paid for three months,” he said.

When asked if he was posted by the N-Power to a place of primary assignment, he said he was not assigned to any particular place to serve.

“That is not my fault because just like some of my colleagues I have been making inquiries, they keep telling us that we should not worry that they would give us a place to serve.

“For me I need the skills to be self-reliant,” he said.

Reacting to the development, the National Programme Manager, N-Power Scheme Dr Akindele Egbuwalo, earlier in a statement assured the beneficiaries of their readiness to settle all outstanding claims.

Egbuwalo who earlier announced a temporary suspension of the programme, said the government would only pay those with genuine claims.

“We appeal to Nigerians to understand the rationale behind the temporary suspension and investigation of the scheme as we work to restore the nation’s confidence in it,” he said.

NAN reports that the Federal Government kick-started the N-Power scheme on June 8, 2016, to address issues of youth unemployment and to increase social interventions.

The scheme was created as a component of the federal government’s National Social Investment Programme Agency (N-SIPA). (NAN)

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