By Chimezie Godfrey
The Federal Government has extended the Special Public Works Programme of 774,000 jobs for Nigerians.
This was part of the resolutions reached by the office of the Minister of State, Labour and Employment with National Directorate of Employment and the participating Banks on Monday in Abuja.
The statement signed by the representatives of the aforementioned stakeholders, disclosed that the decision was prompted by the shortfalls recorded in registration, verification and payments, including the need for the public to be properly guided and updated,
“At a meeting of the above parties held at the Conference room of the Office of the Hon. Minister of State Labour and Employment earlier today in respect of the Federal Government’s Extended Special Public Works Programme (774,000 Jobs) to review the progress so far made in executing the programme, the parties noted the following:
“In light of the above and shortfalls recorded in registration, verification and payments, including the need for the public to be properly guided and updated, all the parties reached the following resolutions.
“All parties affirm that they will continue the rigorous process of registering and verifying all the participants before payments in order to avoid wide-scale fraud in the programme.
“The banks will continue the role of registering and verifying the participants from their local branches in different LGAs in order to ensure that most of the participants are resident in those LGAs to achieve the aim and design of the programme of empowering 1,000 Nigerians in each of the 774 LGAs in Nigeria.
“The meeting agreed that those who have already been selected for the ESPW programme and have issues should approach their various banks to regularize their registration. The Bank branches are directed to attend to all participants duly selected using https://banks.specialpublicworks.gov.ng. On no account should they be turned back.
“Those who have been duly captured by the banks but with incorrect or inconsistent BVNs are advised to go back to their banks to rectify the inconsistencies.
“A link will be provided on the ESPW and NDE websites (www.specialpublicworks.gov.ng and www.nde.gov.ng) for participants to check their BVN status.
“For those who cannot use the internet they should go to the State NDE offices, Liaison Officers of the NDE in their various LGAs or approach the Chairman of their State Selection Committee to avail them the list of those with issues with their BVNs,” the statement stated.
According to the statement, the meeting also stipulated that for those who do not have problems with their BVNs but have not received payments, they should go to the banks that registered them to clarify the issues.
“Banks are mandated banks to issue ATM cards to all participants.
“Participants are therefore encouraged to collect their ATM cards from the banks so that they can access their payments from various cash points without necessarily going to the banks.
“Participants are assured that their stipends would be paid as soon as all issues are resolved.
“The meeting agreed that banks are no longer restricted to their initially allotted Local Governments. Consequently, selected participants are at liberty to approach any of the seven selected banks nearest to the Local Government where they were selected. The Banks are namely Access, FCMB, Fidelity, Heritage, UBA, Yobe MFB and Zenith.
“So far, the NDE has authorized the payments of one-month stipends to all those that have been verified. As shown above, all parties are making strenuous efforts to resolve issues of those yet to receive the first month stipends before the commencement of the second tranche of payments,” the statement disclosed.
The resolution was signed by representatives of the Office of the Hon. Minister: Olua Davidson, Faniyi Fatogun and Christopher Omoaghe.
Others are representatives of the National Directorate of Employment, Olaomi Roseline Silvia, Dauda Idris and Samaila B Mamman.
Also, representatives of Banks, for Access Bank … Atinuke Sayo-Adeyemi, for FCMB … Alero Bola-Pelemo, for Fidelity Bank …. Fatima Garba, for Heritage Bank… ChiChi Alek, for UBA… Arerepade Akagwu, for Zenith Bank … Soibiye Iketubosin, and for Yobe MFB …. Sheriff Mohammad Ibrahim.
