(ABUJA)
The Federal Government has categorically stated that it cannot afford to pay indolent Nigerians the N5000 stipend promised to the unemployed, revealing that it will review the scheme to ensure that potential beneficiaries use the money for productive purposes.
Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr. Chris Ngige, who made the disclosure while speaking to journalists at the APC secretariat in Abuja, revealed that while some people will get N5000 under cash conversion scheme, some will get N10,000, while others may get more than N15,000 while training.
Ngige further explained that some beneficiaries will go through different training programmes before getting employed by either the state or federal government.
“We also have the programme on commission cash transfer… We won’t pay N5000 for people to be indolent. No country in the world would pay people to go home and sleep and collect cash, so Nigeria would not be an exception.
“We will pay some people N5000, pay some N10,000, and for people in teacher conversion scheme, we will pay more than N10,000 – N15,000 as stipend while in training and then after the training they are going to be employed by the state and federal government in different institutions.
“It is not a programme we shall run alone. The state governments are going to buy into it, they are going to synchronize with us. We are going to do it in synergy,” the Minister explained.
While emphasising that the present administration has some poverty alleviating and employment generating programmes, the former Senator added that those programs will span through many ministries.
“The programme will span through the ministries of Education, Agriculture, Labour and Agriculture, because we have some agricultural universities and we plan to convert some people to teach the relevant agricultural courses,” he noted.
On the President’s skills acquisition scheme, Ngige said: “The Ministry has specialists skills acquisition centres; we have seven like that based in the ministry under the Commissioner of Skills.”
“The NDE has over 120 centres scattered all over the country. We also have those that have been built by state governments and we want to capture all of these into that scheme and then get people to the scheme as bricklayers, POP designers, builders, welders, electronics repairers… carpentry, painting and fabrication of all sorts.
“We are going to do it, teach people, give them certifications, because many people don’t know that the Ministry of Labour is the only place that can certify tradesmen. These skill acquisition centres are in grades…
“We want to get back our youth, capture them, teach them to use their hands, so that they can earn money by employing themselves. If you get a bricklayer or a painter today, you cannot pay less than N5000 for a daily job.
“If somebody is able to work 20 days in a month for N5000, he already has N100,000. But today it is a sad story. That is why Togolese, Ghanaians, citizens of Benin Republic, Niger Republic do all these skilled job for us. 80 per cent of workers in that specialist category in construction site all over Nigeria, be it in Abuja, in Lagos or in Onitsha, come from outside.
“The money they are paid is repatriated to their country and all of them will come at the end of the day to put pressure on the naira in the foreign exchange market.
“So, we have decided that we have to train our own youth, let them use their hands to fend for themselves. We will also want to advance some of them into entrepreneurship. If you are very good, we can open a place for you and give you money through the Bank of Industry and SMEDAN and then you can move to the next stage where a number of youths will work with you,” Ngige explained.
(Romanus Ugwu, SUN NEWS ONLINE)