The Federal Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster and Management has explained why it temporarily suspended the poverty eradication program N-Power, citing Irregularities and massive fraud in the system.
The ministry said it is imperative to investigate the program, especially in the last twelve months, saying that it has discovered that some beneficiaries whose tenure has lapsed but continue to be expecting payments while some consultants are holding on to beneficiaries’ funds disbursed to them long ago.
The N-Power program was initiated by the last administration of Muhammadu Buhari in June 2016 to address the issues of youth unemployment and help increase social development.
The ministry in a statement issued on Sunday by Dr. Akindele Egbuwalo, National Programme Manager, N-Power said since the inception of the program, about 960,000 beneficiaries were enrolled and most of them have exited from N-Power 1.0 and N-Power 2.0 batches A and B.
” This action has become necessary to give room for a detailed investigation into the operations of the N-Power in the last twelve months. The total number of persons enrolled in N-Power since its inception to date is 960,000 people. Most have exited from NPower 1.0 and NPower 2.0 batch A and B”.
Egbuwalo stressed that there is a need to audit the number of people in the program, those who have exited the program, and those who are actually being owed.
He added, “Preliminary findings of our audit have shown that some consultants are holding on to beneficiaries’ funds disbursed to them long ago even when their contract ended in March 2023 without any renewal. We condemn this practice and will not tolerate it going forward”.
” Work is ongoing to identify those involved, understand why the payments didn’t get to the final beneficiaries, and recall the funds to pay those owed.”
While appealing to Nigerians to understand the rationale behind the temporary suspension and investigation of the program, the ministry said it is working to restore the nation’s confidence in the program and for the new N-Power to serve Nigerians better.
According to Egbuwalo, the transformation will also birth an expanded program to reach beneficiaries aged 18-40 as opposed to the previous 35-year limit, saying they are targeting five million beneficiaries in the next five years.
