Tuesday, 8 August 2017

The N-Power Programme in A’Ibom State

BY NSEOBONG DAVID

The N-Power is the Federal Government initiative programme designed to reduce unemployment.  The focus is to provide young graduates and non-graduates with the skills, tools and livelihood to enable them advance unemployment to employment, entrepreneurship and innovation.  The scheme is divided into N – Agro, N – Health, N – Teach, N – Community to benefit our youths at equal proportion.

The first phase of the programme was launched last year and many Akwa Ibomites benefitted and are still benefitting from the scheme till date, as some of the beneficiaries were posted to various primary and secondary schools across the State in collaboration with the State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB).

The second batch of the N–Power programme kicked started sometimes in June this year, and just like the first batch, there are high hopes that Akwa Ibomites will also benefit immensely from the scheme because the Federal Government is working hard to ensure fairness and equity in the scheme.


In Akwa Ibom, the State Government through the Ministry of Economic Development and Manpower Planning has made efforts to ensure that greater number of Akwa Ibomites benefit from the 2nd phase of the programme.

The Commissioner for Economic Development and Manpower Planning, Mr. Idorenyin Sunday Udo stated this last Thursday while speaking with newsmen in his office.  He said that it is the wish of the Ministry to have not less than 10,000 beneficiaries of Akwa Ibom indigenes on the programme.  

 The Commissioner also said that the Ministry has created awareness and has sensitized the people of Akwa Ibom on the need to key into the programme, while providing facilities to ease registration of candidates on the 2nd phase of the programme.  He added that more than 54,000 Akwa Ibomites have been registered for the 2nd phase of the programme and some of them have taken their online test.

While it is pertinent to commend the State Government for their intervention in the N-Power programme in the interest of Akwa Ibom people, it is also wise to suggest that since the N-Power programme is purely online, the State Government should enlighten the people on how to register and handle their dashboards online, rather than take it upon themselves to register Akwa Ibomites (more than 54,000 as stated by the Commissioner), which may be too tedious for the government to handle.  Also, the State Government can try to initiate a program similar to the N – Power scheme for graduates and non-graduates from Akwa Ibom State.


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