How we’ll deal with fraudulent claims in N- Power jobs – Presidency
Over 90% of the 200,000
unemployed Nigerian
graduates selected in the first
batch of the N-Power
Volunteer Corps, NPVC, have
been verified using the Bank
Verification Number, and any
untrue information
submitted in the process of
application is a ground for
disqualification.
This clarification was given
Sunday by the Senior Special
Assistant on Media &
Publicity in the Office of the
Vice President, Laolu Akande,
while giving an update on the
N-Power Volunteer Corps
which is now advancing with
assignment of beneficiaries
to their places of deployments
in their states of residence.
Mr. Akande, who referred to
a BBC report last week
regarding the testimonials of
some of the selected Nigerian
graduates noted that “it is
most gladdening that those
who were selected are now
telling the stories of how they
have not been employed for
years, but now grateful to the
President for this initiative.”
Some of them, he added,
expressed satisfaction that
even though they knew no
one in government, they were
selected for the paid
volunteer job program,
attesting to the transparency
of the selection process.
Mr. Akande said that all the
states and the FCT, through
the focal persons they
appointed, have since
received the list of the
200,000, and now working on
deploying the beneficiaries to
their places of assignment.
He also explained that by
using the BVN, which is one
of the most viable means of
identification in the country
today, there is hardly any
way anything fraudulent can
sail through in the process.
“We are confident that the
selection process, all the way
through with BVN, and physical
verification at the points of deployment
in the states and the local government
areas, are both transparent and
impossible to abhor ghost beneficiaries,
or any kind of fraud,” he said.
Mr. Akande said already 93% of those
selected have been screened through the
BVN, with the commendable assistance
of the Nigerian Inter-Bank Settlement
System Plc, NIBSS, and only authentic
and verifiable beneficiaries will be paid
the N30,000 monthly stipends starting
December.
Responding to reports about random
searches conducted on social media
platforms, the SSA dismissed them,
saying such cannot be better than
“biometric identification we have
secured through the BVN.”
“Besides the BVN, there is going to be
physical verification, through an in-built
component in our selection system that
requires that information submitted
online during the application would
have to be authenticated at the point of
deployment across the country,
including verification of academic
credentials and residence status.”
According to him, just as is normal when
someone gets a job or even admission to
school, he or she would proceed to
present papers that have been submitted
during application for verification. “This
is also going to be like that, so claims
about some applicants claiming to be
residents of states would be dealt with if
it turns out such claims are false. If an
applicant cannot supply proof of
residence, the selection is terminated.”
Besides, he explained that in a local
government such as Abadam in Borno
State, where there have been claims that
nonresidents applied and were selected,
Akande assured that there is no cause
for alarm because such people would
have to show up for verification on the
spot.
He added that there was also a likelihood
that a number of applicants may have
input Abadam inadvertently considering
that Abadam LGA is number one on the
list of LGAs under the list as posted on
the N-Power portal. “There is a good
chance,” he continued, “that some
applicants may have failed to complete
the forms online accurately.”
Such errors are being reviewed and
anyone found not to be resident in the
LGA would be removed and replaced
using the waiting list of applicants.
Said he: “an important aspect of the
application was that applicants were told
in clear terms that any false information
would be grounds for disqualification.”
On how the 200,000 people were
selected, the SSA Media explained that
the selection was not only fair and done
transparently, but also with adequate
care.
Firstly, 40% of those who applied for the
N-Power Teach and Agric were selected,
and 50% of those who applied for the
Health category, all based on an
assessment test.
Then to mitigate the adverse socio-
economic circumstances in the North-
East an additional 4800 applicants from
the region were selected with Borno
State getting 1200 and Adamawa, Yobe,
Taraba 800 each and Bauchi and Gombe
600 each.
Also to bolster states with low
application numbers, an additional 4208
was selected and shared between
Bayelsa, Jigawa, Kebbi, Sokoto and
Zamfara States. The Federal Ministry of
Agric also additionally allocated 6799
applicants in the Agric category to all
states across specific crop, fish and
livestock targets in order to support
government’s self-sufficiency target in
Agric produce.
Gender and disability factor were also
key in the selection. 46% of those
selected, Mr. Akande disclosed, are
females, while a total of 1126 were
successful applicants with disabilities.
Mr. Akande then assured that those not
selected in the first batch are now in the
waiting list until the subsequent batches
when they would be considered again,
since there are still 300,000 to be
selected under this budget cycle.
On why the selection process was based
on states of residence rather than states
of origin, Mr. Akande simply noted that
for example, over 42,000 Nigerians
applied for the N-Power from Lagos but
only 3568 of them originate from Lagos.
“Would it then be tenable to say almost
40,000 Bona fide Nigerians who are
applicants resident in Lagos should just
forget it since they are resident but not
origins of the Lagos State?
unemployed Nigerian
graduates selected in the first
batch of the N-Power
Volunteer Corps, NPVC, have
been verified using the Bank
Verification Number, and any
untrue information
submitted in the process of
application is a ground for
disqualification.
This clarification was given
Sunday by the Senior Special
Assistant on Media &
Publicity in the Office of the
Vice President, Laolu Akande,
while giving an update on the
N-Power Volunteer Corps
which is now advancing with
assignment of beneficiaries
to their places of deployments
in their states of residence.
Mr. Akande, who referred to
a BBC report last week
regarding the testimonials of
some of the selected Nigerian
graduates noted that “it is
most gladdening that those
who were selected are now
telling the stories of how they
have not been employed for
years, but now grateful to the
President for this initiative.”
Some of them, he added,
expressed satisfaction that
even though they knew no
one in government, they were
selected for the paid
volunteer job program,
attesting to the transparency
of the selection process.
Mr. Akande said that all the
states and the FCT, through
the focal persons they
appointed, have since
received the list of the
200,000, and now working on
deploying the beneficiaries to
their places of assignment.
He also explained that by
using the BVN, which is one
of the most viable means of
identification in the country
today, there is hardly any
way anything fraudulent can
sail through in the process.
“We are confident that the
selection process, all the way
through with BVN, and physical
verification at the points of deployment
in the states and the local government
areas, are both transparent and
impossible to abhor ghost beneficiaries,
or any kind of fraud,” he said.
Mr. Akande said already 93% of those
selected have been screened through the
BVN, with the commendable assistance
of the Nigerian Inter-Bank Settlement
System Plc, NIBSS, and only authentic
and verifiable beneficiaries will be paid
the N30,000 monthly stipends starting
December.
Responding to reports about random
searches conducted on social media
platforms, the SSA dismissed them,
saying such cannot be better than
“biometric identification we have
secured through the BVN.”
“Besides the BVN, there is going to be
physical verification, through an in-built
component in our selection system that
requires that information submitted
online during the application would
have to be authenticated at the point of
deployment across the country,
including verification of academic
credentials and residence status.”
According to him, just as is normal when
someone gets a job or even admission to
school, he or she would proceed to
present papers that have been submitted
during application for verification. “This
is also going to be like that, so claims
about some applicants claiming to be
residents of states would be dealt with if
it turns out such claims are false. If an
applicant cannot supply proof of
residence, the selection is terminated.”
Besides, he explained that in a local
government such as Abadam in Borno
State, where there have been claims that
nonresidents applied and were selected,
Akande assured that there is no cause
for alarm because such people would
have to show up for verification on the
spot.
He added that there was also a likelihood
that a number of applicants may have
input Abadam inadvertently considering
that Abadam LGA is number one on the
list of LGAs under the list as posted on
the N-Power portal. “There is a good
chance,” he continued, “that some
applicants may have failed to complete
the forms online accurately.”
Such errors are being reviewed and
anyone found not to be resident in the
LGA would be removed and replaced
using the waiting list of applicants.
Said he: “an important aspect of the
application was that applicants were told
in clear terms that any false information
would be grounds for disqualification.”
On how the 200,000 people were
selected, the SSA Media explained that
the selection was not only fair and done
transparently, but also with adequate
care.
Firstly, 40% of those who applied for the
N-Power Teach and Agric were selected,
and 50% of those who applied for the
Health category, all based on an
assessment test.
Then to mitigate the adverse socio-
economic circumstances in the North-
East an additional 4800 applicants from
the region were selected with Borno
State getting 1200 and Adamawa, Yobe,
Taraba 800 each and Bauchi and Gombe
600 each.
Also to bolster states with low
application numbers, an additional 4208
was selected and shared between
Bayelsa, Jigawa, Kebbi, Sokoto and
Zamfara States. The Federal Ministry of
Agric also additionally allocated 6799
applicants in the Agric category to all
states across specific crop, fish and
livestock targets in order to support
government’s self-sufficiency target in
Agric produce.
Gender and disability factor were also
key in the selection. 46% of those
selected, Mr. Akande disclosed, are
females, while a total of 1126 were
successful applicants with disabilities.
Mr. Akande then assured that those not
selected in the first batch are now in the
waiting list until the subsequent batches
when they would be considered again,
since there are still 300,000 to be
selected under this budget cycle.
On why the selection process was based
on states of residence rather than states
of origin, Mr. Akande simply noted that
for example, over 42,000 Nigerians
applied for the N-Power from Lagos but
only 3568 of them originate from Lagos.
“Would it then be tenable to say almost
40,000 Bona fide Nigerians who are
applicants resident in Lagos should just
forget it since they are resident but not
origins of the Lagos State?
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