President Muhammadu Buhari has approved the payment of stipends to the 774,000 participants of the ongoing special works programe across the country.
The Minister of State for Labour, Employment and Productivity, Festus Keyamo (SAN), announced this today in a message he posted on his official Twitter handle.
He, however, disclosed that to ensure accountability every payment will be made to participants through their Bank Verification Number (BVN).
The minister wrote, “President Muhammadu Buhari has graciously directed a release of the funds for the payment of stipends to the 774,000 participants of the SPW programme.
“I have consequently directed the NDE to begin processing the payments and participants should begin to receive payments soon.
“In order to eliminate fraud and/or double payments, I have also directed that every payment to participants should be made using the BVN of their accounts so we can have an audit trail of every single payment.
“Those who registered with different names should not expect payments.”
The Federal Government designed the programme to engage 774,000 unemployed Nigerians and it started nationwide on January 5, 2020 after several postponements.
While N52bn was appropriated for the scheme, each of the 774,000 workers is expected to earn N20,000 monthly for the three-month duration of the job, amounting to about N46.44bn.
