FG Insists Unemployed Nigerians Must Register to Benefit from Social Intervention Schemes

Paul Obi and Marvellous Okeke in Abuja

The federal government on Sunday insisted that all unemployed Nigerians must register online before they can benefit from any social intervention scheme (SIS) of the government, as registration is now mandatory for job seekers and other empowerment programmes.

Minister of Labour and Employment, Sen. Chris Ngige, stated this over the weekend while flagging off the National Directorate of Employment (NDE) School-to-Work Programme in Calabar, Cross River State.

He spoke against the backdrop of different agencies of government laying claim to the ownership of the programmes, a move that might isolate the Ministry of Labour and Employment.

The minister urged all unemployed Nigerians to register at the online job portal of the Social Intervention Scheme of the Federal Government in order to benefit from different categories of programmes which government is offering.

“Unfortunately, as we speak, by last week, the portal has only recorded about 1.2 million persons. We expect more persons to have been registered in the portal before our screening exercise. The portal closes 31st August 2016 which is just few days away,” Ngige said.

“For those who are not computer literate, we advise state governments to encourage them by using local government chairmen to move into local government areas and register the unemployment persons there, so that they can qualify to be considered for the scheme. Each state of the federation is expected to recruit about 1,500 persons.”