Some effort has been made by the Buhari-led administration to alleviate poverty as well as create employment in the country, based on the president’s campaign promise to provide jobs for 500,000 unemployed graduates. To achieve this, N500 billion has been allocated for the Social Intervention Scheme (SIS) in the 2016 national budget. The programme also aims to train Nigerians in various sectors like agriculture, technology, education as well as in some vocational courses.
Unfortunately, the Minister for Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige, has complained about the low volume of registered applicants for the SIS. Ngige noted that only about 1.2 million people have registered through the online job portal (npower.ng.org), so far. Furthermore, he stated that only those who register at the portal will benefit from the scheme and therefore, urged people to register before the portal’s closure tomorrow.
“You must register to benefit from the Social Intervention Scheme. 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 registration portal is Npower.ng.org. The portal closes Aug. 31, which is just few days away,” he said.
For obvious reasons, people are beginning to question the poor response to the programme. Given the current economic climate, it was expected that Nigerians would respond en-masse to this scheme but as it turns out, this is not the case.
Here are some reasons why:
Salary Scheme: As interesting as this programme sounds, the pay is meagre. In a report by the Daily Post, the Senior Special Assistant to the Vice President on Media and Publicity, Mr. Laolu Akande, stated that 500,000 unemployed graduates will be paid N23,000 from the Social Intervention Scheme while extremely poor people will be paid N5,000 per month.
“Payment of between N23,000 to N30,000 per month to 500,000 unemployed graduates who would be trained, paid and deployed to work as volunteer teachers, public health officers and extension service workers among other responsibilities. The payment of N5,000 monthly to one million extremely poor Nigerians for 12 months,” he said.
Frankly, N23,000 for a graduate is barely a stipend. The present economic downturn is a cause for concern as the rate of inflation has increased rapidly in the country. The cost of goods and services have increased drastically, and this has affected the cost of living, adversely. How does the government expect people to make ends meet with N23,000?
Here are few comments from Nairaland;
Favouritism: Many have labelled the Social Insurance Scheme “business as usual.” People believe that nepotism will be the order of the day with this scheme, as it so often is in Nigeria. People will likely be recruited based on their “connections” to the government or those in charge, while regular applicants will be overlooked. This has always been the modus operandi in government parastatals. Based on this, a good number of Nigerians may decide to not apply.
But you can give it a try …
On the outside, the SIS appears to be a step in the right direction by the Federal Government. Although the pay is considerably small, it is better than forcing people to survive on no income at all. Engaging in a scheme like this might open doors to larger opportunities. However, the Federal Government will do well to recruit people based on merit and not nepotism.
