753,307 Nigerian Graduates Has Applied For N-Power In 5 Days

The total number of graduate applicants in the N-Power job recruitment
scheme as at June 18, is 753,307 thus exceeding the total number of both
graduate and non-graduate applicants in 2016 by 2,307.

The
Senior Special Assistant to the President on Job creation, Mr Afolabi
Imoukhuede, disclosed this to News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Asaba,
Delta, on Sunday describing the figure as landmark.

He said that
the figure for 2017 was generated barely five days after the application
was opened on June 14, while the applications for the previous year
were got during the two and half months it was opened.

According
to the SSA, N-Teach, the teacher volunteer aspect of the scheme, got the
highest applications so far with 470,456 while N-Agro the Agriculture
extension section of the scheme followed with 127,315.

He said
that N-Health generated 85,691 applications while the latest component,
the N-Tax, generated 69,842 applications in five days.

Imoukhuede
said that in 2016 the total graduate applicants were 350,000 being less
than 50 per cent of the applications already received in less than one
week of entries for 2017.

He said the reason for the large number
of applications might be because “a lot of graduates now have faith in
the scheme unlike last year when many were a bit skeptical and refused
to apply.’’

He said that in spite of the number, the Federal
Government would restrict itself to the recruitment of 300,000 graduates
in the current scheme in order not to exceed the programme’s budget for
the period.

Imoukhuede hinted that the selection process would
maintain same transparency as in 2016 and expressed gratitude that the
hiccups in 2016 registration was completely absent in 2017.

He
added that everyone to be engaged this year must satisfy the recruitment
requirements outlined in the advertisement such as age and academic
qualification as well as completion of the NYSC scheme.

The SSA
noted that the N-Power was a lifeline provided by Muhammadu Buhari
administration to curb the high rate unemployment rate in the country as
promised during his presidential election campaign in 2015.

According
to him, volunteerism is a global scheme performed free by those working
in other countries but Buhari has promised N30, 000 monthly stipends to
each graduate volunteer in the country.

He advised the youth to
take advantage of the scheme to improve their employability skills and
also add value to the society especially in the rural areas.

He said the N-Power had received a lot of commendations from the public since its inception.

He
showed NAN a particular commendation by one Lucky Odiase who also
begged the“leaders to let N-power be the hub for employment to all
federal jobs’’ because “it is so transparent.’’

Other
commendations had come from Olajide Abiola, Cyril Onyeama, and Umar
Mohammed who hailed the engagement of N-power with the youth on timely
responses to queries and concluded that it showed that “the country can
get things right’’.

One Gabriel Atume simply wrote “God Almighty
will bless PMB (Buhari) and Osinbajo a thousand folds for bringing
dividends of democracy to the grassroots’’.

NAN reports that the applications for 2017 will last from June 14 through July 13.

(NAN)