Why 774,000 jobs participants haven’t been paid— Fed Govt

Why 774,000 jobs participants havenThe Federal Government has explained reasons why N20,000 stipends to some itinerant workers of the 774,000 jobs are yet to be paid. 

It said there were discovery of massive irregularities in the personal data submitted by some of the participants.

In a statement by the Head of Information and Public Relations of the National Directorate of Employment (NDE), Edmund Onwuliri, the government said it was working hard to ensure that all registered and duly verified participants under the Extended Special Public Works (SPW) programme get their pay.

The SPW is Federal Government’s ad hoc programme to provide a stop-gap three-month jobs for artisans to earn N20,000 monthly stipend for doing public works.

Youths were hired from each of the 774 local government areas in the country as beneficiaries, bringing the figure to 774,000 participants.

The programme kick-started in January this year by the Minister of State for Labour and Employment, Festus Keyamo.

The statement reads: “Available statistics indicates that much of the delay in payment of stipends to the participants has been occasioned by massive irregularities discovered by the banks in the personal data submitted by participants.

“For instance, many participants across the country had provided personal data that are at variance with their Bank Verification Numbers (BVN), among other irregularities. This development, if unchecked, would have resulted in the payment of persons other than the actual participants.

“The designated banks have spent a lot of time and efforts at rectifying such anomalies which consequently has slowed down the pace of payment.”

“However, following recent and ongoing consultations between the Federal Government and the designated banks across the country, the pace of payment has significantly improved in the last two weeks thereby bringing the percentage rate of payment to more than 93.22 per cent of the verified participants.

“It is pertinent to state that the backlog of payment will be cleared within the shortest possible time as participants will continue to be paid their stipends as they are cleared by the banks.

“Therefore, the Federal Government wishes to advise all participants in the programme, who are yet to receive payment, to approach the branch of the bank where their accounts were opened for further actions.”