By Oluwatosin Maliki
The administration of President Bola Tinubu has started it’s investigation, while suspending the N-Power program indefinitely.
According to the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation, Betta Edu, she announced the indefinite suspension while speaking in an interview on TVC News on Saturday, which was monitored by Quest Times.
Edu noted that the decision was made following the discovery of some irregularities within the scheme.
Meanwhile, the minister explained that the Federal government has launched an investigation into the utilization of funds since the inception of the program.
She further expressed that some of the beneficiaries of the Initiative are not found in their respective place of assignments yet they expect monthly stipends.
In addition, she revealed that some of the beneficiaries who ought to have exited the program since 2022 are still on the payroll.
She said, “We must go back to look into N-Power and understand what the problems are so we will basically suspend the programe for now until we are done with proper investigation into the utilization of fund into the N-Power program”.
“We want to know how many persons are basically on the program right now, how many persons are owed, amount they are owed. We are totally restructuring the N-Power and expanding it”.
“There are lots going on. We met people who are supposed to have exited the program since last year and they are still on claiming that they are still teaching”.
“Sometimes we contact the school or the places where they are working and they are not there. They are not working yet they keep claiming that they are being owed eight or nine months stipends”.
“About 80 percent of them are not working yet they are claiming salaries”.
Recall that the N-Power Initiative came into inception during the President Muhammadu Buhari administration, with the aim of addressing the issue of youth unemployment and help increase social development.