Charity Nwakaudu, Abuja

The Federal Government has approved the payment of stipends to the exiting N-Power beneficiaries under one of its National Social Investment Programmes (NSIP).

Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, Sadiya Umar Farouq, announced the development in a statement released in Abuja, on Thursday.

The Minister said that the payment details is for the outstanding stipends for the exited N-Power Batches A and B beneficiaries, adding that approval for up to the month of June, for the two (2) batches has been forwarded to the Office of the Accountant General of the Federation (AGFs) for final checks and payments.

She also explained that the only outstanding approval waiting to be forwarded to Accountant-General’s Office is for payment of July stipends for batch B beneficiaries.

The Ministry, however, explained that about 14, 000 beneficiaries that were omitted by the AGF’s Office during the payment from March to June 2020 could be among those rejected by the Government Integrated Financial Management System (GIPMIS) payment platform due to discrepancies identified with their accounts as conveyed to the ministry by the AGF’s office.

‘Any beneficiary receiving payment from other government payment platforms will be rejected by the GIPMIS, hence their payment will be withheld. We requested for details of those affected and the reasons for their rejection from AGF’s Office. We will communicate that to the affected beneficiaries. But if the rejection was done in error, those affected should be rest assured that they will be paid all that is due to them as soon as the error is rectified by the AGF’s office,’ the Ministry said.

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The Ministry added that non disengagement of batch A beneficiaries after 24 months was done out of exigencies of the time. Therefore, exiting batches, A and B after 40 and 24 months, respectively, is in line with the conditions stipulated at the time of their enrolment.

The Minister advised exited benefiticiaries to to exercise more patience and await the result of the efforts being made to ensure that the eligible exited beneficiaries are transited to government progammes or even employment where available.

She added: ‘We have directed Focal Persons of NSIPs in all the states to submit an updated list and details of the exited N-Power beneficiaries that are interested in participating in the transition plans of the Ministry.’

The Minister added that the incoming Batch C beneficiaries will clearly know the details of their terms of enrollment and exit at the time of entry into the programme to avoid what happened in the case of Batches A and B.

Additionally, adequate plan will be made well ahead of their time of exiting the programme to avoid what happened presently. She suggested that candidates seeking enrollment into batch C will be scrutinised and selected on merit.

‘The Ministry will follow a transparent process for selecting the qualified beneficiaries out of the five million applications received,’ she said.