BEVERLY HILLS, AUGUST 1, (THEWILL) – The Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr. Chris Ngige, on Monday, revealed that the Federal Government had received 800,000 applications for the 500,000 jobs promised unemployed youths via the N-Power scheme.
Ngige, speaking at the 5th Town Hall Meeting organised by the Federal Ministry of Information in Enugu, advised the people of the South East to explore the opportunity by registering on the web portal.
He called on the Governors and Local Government Chairmen to assist their youths to print the forms as many expressed difficulty in accessing the portal regretted that youths neglected skills acquisition for white collar jobs that were not in existence, adding that most skilled jobs were being done by people from other neighbouring countries.
“I want our graduates to register so that they will not say that they are marginalised when people that registered are selected,” he said.
“If our youths had acquired skills, they would be self-employed and reliant and shun Boko Haram, IPOB and Avengers.”
Notwithstanding, the Federal Government has extended the deadline for registration on the N-Power portal.
A statement released on Monday by Laolu Akande, Senior Special Assistant to the Vice-President on Media and Publicity, disclosed that the application process, which was scheduled to end on July 25, has now been extended till the end of August to attract more applicants.
“The Federal Government is providing an additional grace period for more young Nigerians to access the N-Power opportunity. The new deadline for the receipt of applications is now Wednesday, August 31, 2016,” the statement read.
“N-Power is one of the initiatives of the N500bn President Muhammadu Buhari’s Social Investment Programme designed to empower young Nigerians with life-long skills to find or create work.
“The N-Power programme is segmented into three: N-Power Teachers Corps Agriculture and Health related jobs; N-Power Knowledge for ICT and N-Power Build for building services and artisanal training
“N-Power is targeted at young Nigerians aged between 18 and 35 and is aimed at enlisting a total of 600,000 young Nigerians in phases, and under different sectors, in the largest capacity development and empowerment effort yet in the country.
“This will also allow those yet to complete the application process to ensure they see the process through as incomplete applications will not be processed. To apply, simply log on to www.npower.gov.ng and register for any one of the three sub-programmes.
“Please note that applications may be subject to other criteria which can be found on the N-Power website. Any prospective applicant, who has any challenge with uploading supporting documents unto the Portal because of the size of the files, should attach these documents in a mail transmitted to support@npower.gov.ng
“After the Application portal closes, there will be a verification, testing and selection process before successful applicants are enlisted in phases as the specific programme design may necessitate.”
Story by David Oputah
