Keyamo: Nigerian Gov’t Yet To Disburse N6B For 774,000 Jobs Beneficiaries

The Federal Government of Nigeria is yet to disburse the sum of N6 billion for the remaining beneficiaries of the 774,000 Special Public Works Programme, Minister of State for Labour and Employment, Festus Keyamo said on Monday, November 15, 2021.

Keyamo blamed the delay on bank challenges, stating that the FG was committed to fixing the bottlenecks.

The minister spoke at the Special Day of the Nigeria Directorate of Employment, NDE, at the 2021 Edition of the Lagos International Trade Fair, Tafawa Balewa Square, Lagos.

The event witnessed the display of some of the goods and services including bags, adire, shoes, locally made stoves, production of perfumes, and paints produced by beneficiaries of the NDE support programme.

Keyamo said out of the N46 billion earmarked for the Special Public Works Programme in 2021, only N4 0billion had been disbursed, with N6 billion left.

He challenged all the state structures put in place under the Special Public Works Programme to ensure that beneficiaries who had not been paid, to be paid and avoid the money being mopped up by the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, before the end of the year.

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“We have made an adjustment in the last few months. We are not attaching a particular bank to a local government again. Beneficiaries on the programme can go to any of the six banks in those local governments and they will be paid,” he said.

Keyamo explained that the Special Public Works Programme is a mixture of bureaucratic networks of NDE and political structures, adding that there was “a lot of rivalries but Lagos as a state, we have had a perfect synergy between both. We are proud.”

He called for more women participation in the Special Public Works Programme “because they are caregivers and that money is a lifesaver for many families across the country.”

He restated the commitment of President Muhammadu Buhari towards lifting the poor out of poverty, stressing that the government could not do it alone.

THE NATION