Osinbajo: 2.3m Nigerians Scramble for 300,000 N-Power Jobs

By Omololu Ogunmade in Abuja

As many as 2.3 million young Nigerians have applied for proposed federal government’s 300,000 N-Power jobs under its Social Investment Programme (SIP), Acting President Yemi Osinbajo disclosed in Abuja yesterday.

The acting president made the disclosure when he visited one of the training centres to distribute tablets to those already engaged under the scheme in the nation’s capital.

According to him, whereas 500,000 jobs are the entire target for the N-power scheme of which he said 200,000 had already been engaged, the government might be forced to increase the target if it had the resources to do so.

However, he insisted that the target remained 500,000 for now. 

Observing that the government would be unable to do everything needed to be done, Osinbajo who said he was impressed by what he saw, added that the programme was more than just providing jobs for young ones but also includes skill learning.

He said prompt payment of monthly earnings was being made to beneficiaries of the scheme except those whose bank verification numbers (BVN) were at variance with the information provided.

“You will recall that the target was 500,000 but depending on our resources, we can always do more but the target for now is 500,000.

But, what I want to say to the young people working on this is that, if we take the opportunity for instance; if you look at the tablet given to them, the tablet contains so much information, so much learning materials that one can really develop his skills in a wide variety of ways and be able to give himself greater opportunity.

“So it is much more than an employment programme. It is a learning programme. It is a skills’ development programme and it’s unprecedented. I haven’t seen anything like this anywhere in the world. 

“I think it is excellent. I think they have done very well indeed. If you look at this centre here, those that are engaged here are answering questions from all the social media platforms – Facebook, Instagram etc. They are also taking calls. So, the whole idea is that there must be constant engagement with young people on the Programme. 

“Some are saying, I have not been paid etc. There are very many implications. For example, if your BVN doesn’t match the records with them and that happens a lot, a lot of them have to be worked out.

“I just want to say I’m so impressed with the young people working here. We are training these young people,” he said.