The Federal Government of Nigeria provided an online portal back in December 2020 to allow exited N-Power beneficiaries to apply for a loan, many of these beneficiaries indicated interest and this has prompted the government to map out an exit strategy for hundreds of thousands of unemployed graduates who are currently taking part in the N-Power scheme.

The strategy involves a training programme in specific areas after which the graduates will be given loans to start their businesses.

The Minister of Human Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, Hajia Sadiya Umar Farouk, made the revelation during the weekly ministerial media briefing organized by the Presidential Communications Team, at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

She said the government had a plan of putting about 300,000 applicants on a training programme while the CBN will provide them loans.

“We have an exit strategy in partnership with the Central Bank of Nigeria and out of 500, 000 beneficiaries, already about 300, 000 have indicated interest to be part of the exit programme where they can be trained in various skills of their choice, after which they will be given loans by the Central Bank of Nigeria, for them to start their businesses.

“On this, we have gone far and we are in the process of training those that indicated interest and I am sure before the end of this quarter, these people will be given these loans by the CBN,” she said.

She said the loans are being handled by the central bank because “as a ministry or government agency, we don’t give loans.”

The minister also spoke about the impact of the scheme on previous beneficiaries.

“In the batch ‘A’ and ‘B’, 500,000 people benefited on that (N-Power) programme for four years and we were giving them N30,000 monthly stipend while the batch ‘B’ benefited for two years.

“These are people who were not employed; they had nothing to do but they were engaged to have a decent living.”

More details about this will be communicated to you in the coming weeks.