Name of the policy

N-Power

Year formulated

The policy was formulated in June 8, 2006 by the Nigeria president Muhammadu Buhari to address the
issue of youth unemployment and help increase social development. The scheme as created as a
component of National Social Investment Program, to provide a structure for large scale and relevant
work skills acquisition and development and to ensure that each participant will learn and practice most
of what is necessary to find or create work

Applicant are selected and placed in several places known as primary place of assignment(PPA). These
PPA can be found by checking your Npower status. Applicant will then be paid specific stipends on
monthly basis by the scheme

Objectives of the policy

The specific objectives of the programe are to

Intervene and directly improve the livelihood of a critical mass of young unemployed Nigerians

Develop a quantitative system for transfer of employability, entrepreneurial and technical skills

Create an ecosystem of solution for ailing public services and government diversification policy

Develop and enhance Nigeria’s knowledge economy

Provide opportunity for fresh graduates to become entrepreneurs of their own micro/ small business
outfit

Targets of the policy; values, volumes embarked in determining the likely success of tr policy and
timeline for achievement

As part of effort to curb unemployment and poverty in Nigeria, in 2006, president Muhammadu Buhari
created the Npower programme, under the National social investment programme (NSIP), where
beneficiaries are paid 30,000 every month for two years and overseen by the ministry of humanitarian
Affairs, Disaster Managemnt and Social Development. PAUL OKAH interviewed beneficiaries of the
scheme in different state of Nigeria, who praised the federal government and gave testimonials of their
achievement under the scheme
Strategies for implementation

Beneficiary of the Npower initiative who have concluded the two years job programme will be able
access permanent job opportunities or business prospects in line with the N-Power exit strategy now
activated by Muhammadu Buhari administration

Under the plan 200,000 beneficiaries will be engaged as financial services operators under a shared
agent network expansion facilities scheme operated by central bank of Nigeria. Some beneficiary of the
scheme confirmed in separate telephone interview that a platform known as N-exit portal had indeed
been opened to collate and process beneficiaries’ information in line with government’s exit strategy

Performance of the policy

Critiques of the policy; good and bad side of the policy

Some systemic hiccups, including insufficient information and wrong Bank Verification Number ( BVN)
have been identified as factors threatening to wreck the N-Power programme, introduced by the
Federal Government, as a social safety net to reduce rate of graduate unemployment plaguing the
country. Specifically, the programme, which took off in December 2016 year is designed to provide a
stopgap for 500,000 unemployed graduate of tertiary institution over the next two years

While the Federal Government is responsible for their monthly stipends, it is in partnership with state
governments to verify selected unemployed graduate an deploy them to their of primary assignment.
Volunteer graduates are expected to serve in the communities where they are resident

Under the programme, the first batcg of 200,000 participants are to be paid #30,000 a month and
deployed by the respective state government and the Federal capital Territory(FCT) to their different
places of assignment

Concludimg remark