The administration of President Muhammadu Buhari has started plans to pay the N5000 monthly allowance to the about N25 million unemployed youths in the country by 2016. The All Progressives Congress had promised before the election that it would address the issue of unemployment by paying unemployed youths N5000 and also introduce a feeding programme to schools.
The Peoples Democratic Party had in a motion called on the president to immediately fulfil his campaign promise by implementing the N5000 payment to unemployed youths but the move was rejected by APC senators.
The Punch however reports that the federal government had started plan on Monday, November 16 to pay the unemployed youths and also implement the school feeding programme and this will be covered in the 2016 budget.
Some officials have also been saddled with the responsibility of finding out the accurate number of youths that will benefit from the scheme.
A top government official who spoke on the condition of anonymity said the scheme had to be done well so that it would not be mismanaged and hijacked by politicians.
“You know that if the scheme is left open-ended, even Nigerians, who are employed and are by no means vulnerable, will still struggle to benefit from it.
“You also know that if not properly handled, politicians will hijack the scheme and it will become a means of settling their constituents, whether they qualify to benefit from it or not.
This is why the government will come up with data on the beneficiaries very soon.”
The official said the scheme might not take off in January or February of next year as it was important to ascertain the number of youths that deserve the payment and how much it would cost.
Mr. Laolu Akande who is the senior special adviser to the vice president on media and publicity confirmed that work was already on to identify the beneficiaries.
He said: “Work is ongoing on various aspects of the implementation of that social investment plan, including the identification of those that will benefit from it. Very soon, we shall be concluding work on that; that is a very important aspect of the programme.
