JUST IN: FG unveils fresh opportunities for exited N-Power beneficiaries

It seems the year 2021 will be another year of hope for the entire disengaged N-POWER beneficiaries as former beneficiaries who have concluded the two-year job programme will now be able to access permanent job opportunities or business prospects in line with the N-power exit strategy now activated by the Federal Government, as two-hundred-thousand beneficiaries will be engaged as financial services operators under a Shared Agent Network Expansion Facility S-A-N-E-F scheme operated by the Central Bank of Nigeria under the plan, OSUNREPORTERSN NEWS gathered.

Another thirty-thousand have already been engaged as geospatial experts and enumerators in the Economic Sustainability Plan’s Mass Agric programme while several others will have the option of benefiting from the G-E-E-P micro-enterprise loans.

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According to N-Power exit strategy document, at least two-hundred-thousand former N-Power beneficiaries will be onboarded on a scheme known as the Shared Agent Network Expansion Facility S-A-N-E-F while at least thirty-thousand others would be deployed for the Mass Agric programme, a component of the Economic Sustainability Plan E-S-P, and another number will be given opportunities to improve or start new businesses under a micro-enterprise initiative.

The S-A-N-E-F scheme is a project powered by the Central Bank of Nigeria, Deposit Money Banks, Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement Systems, Chattered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria, Licensed Mobile Money Operators, and Shared Agents with the primary objective of accelerating financial inclusion in Nigeria.

According to the plan, the project will among other things create a platform for Nigerian owned financial services companies to grow whilst empowering and creating jobs for Nigerians. S-A-N-E-F in partnership with N-S-I-P will onboard two-hundred-thousand N-Power graduates as S-A-N-E-F agents under the approved S-A-N-E-F licensed Super Agents, while achieving N-Power’s objective to improve the livelihood of a critical mass of young unemployed Nigerians.

Under the scheme, the beneficiaries will be trained in different areas including customer service, transaction settlement, liquidity management, anti-money laundering, among others, while government would facilitate the initial funding for the scheme for each beneficiary.

Requirements for the S-A-N-E-F programme includes:

The N-Power certificate; Bank Verification Number; Bank account number; duly completed agent enrolment form from operator; proof of identity, among other documents.

The second exit strategy which is already being implemented is the deployment of former N-Agro beneficiaries for the Mass Agric programme as geo-spatial experts and enumerators. The goal is to engage the beneficiaries in the geo-mapping of farm lands and the enumeration of farmers, across the country for the programme. The Mass Agric programme is a component of the Economic Sustainability Plan designed to among other things engage millions of farmers, cultivating thousands of hectares of land across the country.

According to the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Agriculture, Dr Andrew Kwasari , “over thirty-thousand former N-Agro beneficiaries have been enlisted and deployed to Local Government Areas across the country for the mapping of farm lands and enumeration of farmers under the Mass Agric programme. They are being supervised by the agricultural development officers in the Local Government Areas, he added.

Speaking on the third programme for the former N-Power beneficiaries, a ministry official who explained the plan noted that the micro-enterprise initiative, the third programme under the exit strategy, is one where exited N-power beneficiaries are offered the option of applying for a proposed G-E-E-P loan to fund their small businesses.

Joint collaboration is encouraged to form registered cooperatives in line with earlier established G-E-E-P loan requirements. The official noted that arrangements were ongoing for an effective collaboration with state governments and other stakeholders to ensure that former N-Power beneficiaries maintain viable income streams in the new arrangements put in place by the Buhari administration.