Over 90% of the 200,000 unemployed
Nigerian graduates selected in the first batch of the N-Power Volunteer Corps,
NPVC, have been verified using the Bank Verification Number, and any untrue
information submitted in the process of application is a ground for disqualification.
This clarification was given today by the
Senior Special Assistant on Media & Publicity in the Office of the Vice
President, Mr. Laolu Akande, while giving an update on the N-Power Volunteer
Corps which is now advancing with assignment of beneficiaries to their places
of deployments in their states of residence.
Akande who referred to a BBC report last
week regarding the testimonials of some of the selected Nigerian graduates
noted that “it is most gladdening that those who were selected are now telling
the stories of how they have not been employed for years, but now grateful to
the President for this initiative.”
Some of them, he added, express
satisfaction, according to the BBC report now online, that even though they
knew no one in government, they were selected for the paid volunteer job
program, attesting to the transparency of the selection process.
The Senior Special Assistant stated that
all the states and the FCT through the focal persons they appointed have since
received the list of the 200,000, and now working on deploying the
beneficiaries to their places of assignment.
He also explained that by using the BVN
which is one of the most viable means of identification in the country today,
there is hardly any way anything fraudulent can sail through in the process.
“We are confident that the selection
process, all the way through with BVN, and physical verification at the points
of deployment in the states and the local government areas, are both
transparent and impossible to abhor ghost beneficiaries, or any kind of fraud,”
he asserted.
Already, Akande disclosed that 93% of
those selected have been screened through the BVN, with the commendable
assistance of the Nigerian Inter-Bank Settlement System Plc, NIBSS, and only
authentic and verifiable beneficiaries will be paid the N30,000 monthly
stipends starting December.
Responding to some allusions made in
sections of the media about random searches conducted on social media platforms,
the SSA dismissed them stating that such cannot be better than “biometric
identification we have secured through the BVN.”
In any case he continued, “besides the
BVN, there is going to be physical verification, through an in-built component
in our selection system that requires that information submitted online during
the application would have to be authenticated at the point of deployment
across the country, including verification of academic credentials and
residence status.”
According to him, just as is normal when
someone gets a job or even admission to school, he or she would proceed to
present papers that have been submitted during application for verification.
“This is also going to be like that, so claims about some applicants claiming
to be residents of states would be dealt with if it turns out such claims are
false. If an applicant cannot supply proof of residence, the selection is
terminated.”
Besides, he explained that in a local
government such as Abadam in Borno State, where there have been claims that non
residents applied and were selected, Akande assured that there is no cause for
alarm because such people would have to show up for verification on the spot.
He added that there was also a likelihood
that a number of applicants may have inputted Abadam inadvertently considering
that Abadam LGA is number one on the list of LGAs under the list as posted on
the N-Power portal. “There is a good chance,” he continued, “that some
applicants may have failed to complete the forms online accurately.”
Such errors are being reviewed and anyone
found not to be resident in the LGA would be removed and replaced using the
waiting list of applicants.
Said he: “an important aspect of the
application was that applicants were told in clear terms that any false
information would be grounds for disqualification.”
On how the 200,000 first batch of the
N-Power was selected, the SSA Media explained that the selection was not only
fair and done transparently, but also with adequate care.
Firstly, 40% of those who applied for the
N-Power Teach and Agric were selected, and 50% of those who applied for the
Health category, all based on an assessment test.
Then to mitigate the adverse
socio-economic circumstances in the North- East an additional 4800 applicants
from the region were selected with Borno State getting 1200 and Adamawa, Yobe,
Taraba 800 each and Bauchi and Gombe 600 each.
Also to bolster states with low
application numbers, an additional 4208 was selected and shared between
Bayelsa, Jigawa, Kebbi, Sokoto and Zamfara States. The Federal Ministry of
Agric also additionally allocated 6799 applicants in the Agric category to all
states across specific crop, fish and livestock targets in order to support
government’s self-sufficiency target in Agric produce.
Gender and disability factor were also
key in the selection. 46% of those selected, Akande disclosed, are females,
while a total of 1126 were successful applicants with disabilities.
Akande then assured that those not
selected in the first batch are now in the waiting list until the subsequent
batches when they would be considered again, since there are still 300,000 to
be selected under this budget cycle.
On why the selection process was based on
states of residence rather than states of origin, Akande simply noted that for
example, over 42,000 Nigerians applied for the N-Power from Lagos but only 3568
of them originate from Lagos. “Would it then be tenable to say almost 40,000
Bona fide Nigerians who are applicants resident in Lagos should just forget it
since they are resident but not origins of the Lagos State?
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