From Juliana Taiwo-Obalonye, Abuja

Despite reports that the newly launched jobs portal of the Federal Government crashed, the Presidency said over 400,000 applicants successful registered after the launch on Sunday, June 12.
“We have been very impressed by the enthusiastic response to the call for applications. As at noon on Monday, June 13, only 36 hours after the launch 403, 528 applicants have successfully registered on the site and were in the middle of completing the application process.
“We are also very pleased that the registrations have been taking place without any hitches or system failures, considering the volume of response.
“All together the website has received over 35 million hits since Saturday midnight,” senior Special Assistant to the President on Job Creation‎, Afolabi Imoukhuede, said in a statement yesterday.
The jobs scheme, known as ‘N-Power’, is one of the five initiatives of the Social Investment Programmes of the Federal Government.
A total sum of N500 billion has been provided for the programme in the 2016 Budget.
According to the Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity to the Vice President, Laolu Akande, N-Power is designed to help young Nigerians acquire and develop life-long skills to become solution providers in their communities and to become players in the domestic and global markets.
It will provide employment opportunities for 500,000 graduates as teachers, agriculture extension advisers, healthcare assistants, and civic and adult education instructors in communities across Nigeria.
There will also be a pool of 100,000 software developers, hardware service professionals, animators, graphic artists, building services professionals, artisans and others.
Applications for the Scheme commenced on June 12 after which screening and shortlisting will be carried out.
“The Buhari presidency assures all Nigerians that this application process would not only be structurally robust, transparent and fair, the selection process that will follow would also be based on objective criteria that has nothing to do with party affiliations. Unemployed Nigerians, both graduate and non-graduates, would be drawn from across the country on state by state basis in the final analysis,” Akande said.