The Minister of State for Labour, Employment and Productivity, Festus Keyamo (SAN), has announced on Saturday being 20th March 2021 that the President, Muhammadu Buhari, had approved the payment of stipends to the 774,000 Participants of the ongoing Special Public Works Programme across the country.
Keyamo disclosed this cheering news in a tweet he posted on his Twitter handle, @fkeyamo.
Recall that the programme designed to engage 774,000 unemployed Nigerians started nationwide on January 5, 2021 after several postponements.
While N52bn was appropriated for the scheme, each of the 774,000 workers is expected to earn N20,000 monthly for the three-month duration of the job, amounting to about N46.44bn.
Keyamo added that he had directed the National Directorate of Employment to begin processing the payments.
He assured the participants that they would soon receive payment alerts.
Keyamo Writes “President Muhammadu Buhari has graciously directed a release of the funds for the payment of stipends to the 774,000 participants of the SPW programme.
“I have consequently directed the NDE to begin processing the payments and participants should begin to receive payments soon.
“In order to eliminate fraud and/or double payments, I have also directed that every payment to participants should be made using the BVN of their accounts so we can have an audit trail of every single payment.
“Those who registered with different names should not expect payments.”
The programme commenced on January 5 contrary to a resolution by the House of Representatives that asked the Federal Government to suspend it.
The House had particularly asked Keyamo to suspend the exercise indefinitely until all issues the National Assembly had against it were resolved.
