The Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, (SAN) has said that the extended Federal Government Special Public Works Programme of 774,00 jobs opportunities to Nigerians was part of deliberate efforts and conscious strategies to address the ballooning population of unemployed youths and rising insecurity in some parts of the country.
The Minister stated this on Saturday in Birnin-Kebbi during the flag off of the programme, noted that the employment opportunities as part of strategies adopted to fast-track the achievement of the Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (2017-2020).
Read Also: National Assembly Can’t Summon President Buhari – Malami
Malami said the objective was to facilitate the creation of productive and inclusive societies in the country and shield the most vulnerable from passive hunger, poverty, environmental degradation and joblessness.
The Minister said the programme was implemented in eight states of the federation with the target of immediately engaging 774,000 selected unemployed Nigerians to execute carefully selected projects across the 774 local government areas in the country. He said 21,000 unemployed youth will benefit from the programme in Kebbi State.
According to him, ‘I am convinced that the programme will provide the necessary economic palliatives to these 774,000 unemployed youths. Added to this, the youth who diligently participate in the projects may deploy the knowledge and skills acquired to become self-employed,‘
The Minister enumerated several Federal Government intervention programmes to included N-Power programme, Anchor Browsers which supported over 2000 rice farmers, conditional cash transfers, special loans for small and medium enterprises among others as part of efforts to radically transform the economic fortunes of the Nigerian masses.
He disclosed that the Federal Government will come out with sixteen more similar interventions which are aimed at boosting the economy and enhancing the welfare of Nigerians.
SPW is a dry season/off-season transient job programme originally designed for the rehabilitation/maintenance of public and social infrastructure.
Participants would be recruited largely from the pool of unskilled persons in Nigeria’s rural areas and paid an allowance of N20,000 monthly.
The programme, which is scheduled to last three months, will engage 1000 unemployed Nigerians in each of the country’s 774,000 local government areas
AFRICA DAILY NEWS, NEW YORK
