The Minister of State for Labour and Employment, Mr Festus Keyamo (SAN), has dropped his threat to leave office should any political office holder hijack the new Federal Government’s job scheme ‘Special Public Works Programme’.
It would be recalled that Keyamo threatened to resign if politicians hijack the scheme and prevent it from reaching the most vulnerable and poor Nigerians at the grass root level.
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The scheme will engage jobless youths in the rural areas for traffic control, street cleaning, clearing of drainage, sweeping markets, road maintenance, and cleaning of public infrastructures like school and health centres.
The SPW targets 1, 000 persons in each of the 774 local government areas in the country.
Beneficiaries are to be paid a monthly stipend of N20, 000 for a period of three months.
Keyamo disclosed on Thursday that the State Selection Committees would be instructed to allocate to political office holders like senators, reps, ministers and governors, “a number in total not exceeding ten percent of the total beneficiaries in that State”
The Supervising Minister further disclosed that the government has allocated N42.6bn to be used for the Special Public Works programme adding that it would commence in October, 2020.
Keyamo added that a website would be developed where information such as composition and contact of the Selection Committees, list of the selected beneficiaries and chosen projects would be displayed for the public.
Author:Abiodun Alade
