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 on Sunday 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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