At least four PhD holders have applied for the newly launched public works programme in Ogun State, the Ogun state Chairman of Special Public Works, Gbenga Obadara, has said.
In an interview with Punch, Obadara said that four PhD and 200 Master’s degree holders were among applicants for the Federal Government scheme in the state.
He said, “Four PhD and master’s degree holders have applied. Poverty is ravaging. Unemployment is extremely on the high rise. People with master’s degrees and even PhD degrees are applying for N20,000 jobs. That is the problem. It cannot cover everybody. We cannot blame the Federal government.”
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He said that the committee started distribution of forms four weeks ago, adding that almost 20,000 persons from 20 local government areas in the state had obtained the forms. He described the 20,000 slots allotted to the state as “a drop off in the ocean.
The public works programme is a Federal Government initiative, coordinated by the Ministry of Labour and Employment, aimed at recruiting 774,000 Nigerians. It is part of the measures put in place by President Muhammadu Buhari’s to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic.
A total of 1,000 Nigerians are expected to be recruited from each of the 774 local government areas in the country. The programme is coordinated by a committee in each state. The jobs, under the programme, are for unskilled labour and successful applicants are to earn N20, 000 monthly for three months.
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Meanwhile, the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management, and Social Development, Sadiya Umar Farouq, has approved the payment of stipends to the exited N-Power beneficiaries.
The N-power programme is designed to assist young Nigerians between the ages of 18 to 35 to acquire and develop life-long skills for becoming change-makers in their communities and players in the domestic and global markets. Beneficiaries are given a stipend of N30,000 monthly.
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A statement on Thursday by Nneka Ikem Anibeze, the minister’s Special Assistant on Media, quoted her as saying that the “approval has been given for the payment of the outstanding stipends for the exited N-Power Batches A and B beneficiaries.”
“The approval for payments for up to the month of June 2020 for the two (2) Batches has already been forwarded to the office of the Accountant General of the Federation (AGF) for final checks and payments.
“The only outstanding approval waiting to be forwarded to Accountant-General’s Office is for the payment of July Stipends for batch B beneficiaries,” he had said.
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