The news reaching us today says that The Federal Government has shortlisted 390,000 applicants prequalified for the next stage of the programme out of the 500,000 enrollees on the President Muhammadu Buhari social development initiative. The shortlisted 390,000 is for the CBN Nexit empowerment programme to receive entrepreneurship skills training in different phases starting from next month.
The Nexit empowerment programme is purposely designed for exited N-power beneficiaries.
The scheme provide skills and funding to concerned persons to be able to start up a business or support their existing business.
The Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, Sadiya Umar Farouq who gave an update on the programme on Wednesday said, the remaining 109,000 candidates are to be provided entrepreneurship programme at a later date.
Farouq also noted that all the 36 states of the federation including the FCT got federal government intervention in form of rice supplies to mitigate acute food shortage during the COVID -19 lockdown last year.
She said grains were also distributed to 28 states from the strategic national reserves.
The minister also disclosed that the over 300,000 Nigerian refugees displaced by insurgency and currently due to return from Cameroon, Niger and Chad are presently undergoing different processes and profiling by the Nigeria Immigration Service and Department of State Service (DSS) to ascertain their true status.
The Minister, Farouq made the disclosure while speaking on the social development and humanitarian challenges facing the country, and the government’s responses to the ongoing humanitarian and food crises in the country at the virtual Chatham House Africa Programme titled: “Responding to humanitarian and food crises in Nigeria”.
Chatham House noted that Nigeria was facing significant challenges due to the impacts of widening insecurity and a worsening humanitarian and food crisis that is currently affecting the northeast of the country.
It noted that the World Food Programme estimated that 3.4 million people were facing acute hunger in Borno, Yobe and Adamawa states, and that another 4.3 million were entirely dependent on food assistance from the government or multilateral organisations.
Meanwhile, the payment of arrears of stipends for batches A and B of the 2016 and 2018 volunteers of the N-Power Programme has commenced by the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development.