President Muhammadu Buhari has ordered the release of funds for the payment of 774,000 beneficiaries of the special public works programme. This was made known by Mr Festus Keyamo, the Minister of State for Labour and Employment.
In a series of tweets on Saturday, Mr Keyamo acknowledged that he has directed the National Directorate of Employment (NDE) to commence the payment.
“President Muhammadu Buhari has graciously directed a release of the funds for the payment of stipends to the 774,000 participants of the SPW Programme. “I have consequently directed the NDE to begin processing the payments and participants should begin to receive payments soon”.
“In order to eliminate fraud and/or double payments, I have also directed that every payment to participants should be made using the BVN of their accounts so we can have an audit trail of every single payment. Those who registered with different names shouldn’t expect payments,” Keyamo’s tweets read.
A total of 1,000 Nigerians from each of the 774 LGAs have been targeted for the programme and President Buhari had earlier in 2020 directed Keyamo to commence the initiative despite a misunderstanding with the national assembly.
In the heat of that misunderstanding, Keyamo had told the National Assembly he would not back down, adding that it was only President Buhari that could stop the programme.