N-Power and Home Grown Feeding

Two of the Federal Government’s long awaited social investment programs promised in the 2016 budget took off in the past week, at least on paper. Today, June 12, the presidency would start taking applications online for positions in the 500,000 direct teacher jobs scheme for which an internet portal, npower.gov.ng has been created. According to […]

Two of the Federal Government’s long awaited social investment programs promised in the 2016 budget took off in the past week, at least on paper. Today, June 12, the presidency would start taking applications online for positions in the 500,000 direct teacher jobs scheme for which an internet portal, npower.gov.ng has been created. According to Senior Special Assistant to the Vice President on Media and Publicity Mr. Laolu Akande, unemployed young Nigerians are to visit this website and apply for the program.
The 500,000 Teacher Corps, nicknamed N-Power Teach on the portal, is one of the three direct job creation and training schemes planned by government. Others are N-Power Knowledge, under which 25,000 Nigerians are to be trained in technology, and N-Power Build, under which 75,000 young persons will be trained in building services, construction, utilities, hospitality, catering, automotive vocations, aluminium and gas services. While Teacher Corps will be a two year program and volunteers will be paid N23,000 a month each and will be given computer facilities, those to be engaged in the training schemes would be paid for the duration of their training. All of them will be engaged in teaching, instructional and advisory roles in primary and secondary schools, agricultural extension as well as public health and community education across the country.
This is all very good news to hard-pressed young Nigerians, many of whom left school many years ago and have been unable to either secure a job or launch themselves into a meaningful entrepreneurship. While the teaching plan has been criticised for planning to employ graduates without formal teaching qualifications, the scheme envisages a crash program to impart some teaching skills in them. This may not be adequate but it is better than nothing, and their presence in the schools will certainly bridge some gaps in shortage of teachers, especially in some critical subjects. Being degree holders, they may actually do better in many cases than the many teachers currently in the school system who repeatedly failed their examinations. In many ways this scheme is like a domestic Technical Aid Corps, under which we have assisted many African and Caribbean countries to overcome skilled manpower shortages.
The N23,000 monthly pay is better than the current NYSC allowance and slightly above the national minimum wage. It is planned to last for only two years but the likelihood is that this will be increased if things go well. Besides, the two year period will also have made the young teachers to acquire some working experience and become more competitive in the job market. Before all that however, we advice the authorities to avoid a crush in the recruitment exercise. Millions of desperate young men and women are likely to submit online applications so we must avoid an Abba Moro-like experience where hundreds of thousands are invited for alleged aptitude tests. The authorities must also try and curb corruption in the recruitment exercise, since some officials could capitalise on applicants’ desperation to extort money from them. And then also, we do not expect any fees to be charged from the applicants, lest social investment turns into another social extortion.
While fewer numbers are envisaged under the N-Power Knowledge scheme, all the caveats enumerated above still apply. Those engaged under this program, which resembles the skills acquisition programs of the National Directorate of Employment [NDE], are to be trained in technical fields from animation to graphic design, post-production, script writing, software development, web designing and the repair and maintenance of mobile phones and computers. Although it was not mentioned, we expect this program to include assisting the young graduates to set up their own businesses in these areas after their training. As NDE found out long ago, acquiring technical knowledge is one thing but a young graduate also needs basic business management and book keeping skills in order to make a success in business.
The second social investment plan that took off this week was the National Home Grown School Feeding program. Its strategic implementation plan was launched by Acting President Yemi Osinbajo in Abuja last Thursday at a ceremony attended by four state governors and many other stakeholders. Under this program, 5 million primary school children in the first year, and ultimately 24 million school children, are to be provided with one “hot nutritious meal” each per day. Among the program’s many intended benefits are to improve child nutrition, boost school enrolment and retention, create jobs and stimulate local agricultural production.
We argued before that feeding pupils is not the most urgent problem facing our educational system, which has no sufficient teachers, classrooms or instructional materials. This program is however very beneficial in other areas, including to boost the mental capacity of pupils. The strategic plan that Osinbajo launched outlines the format for cooperation between federal, state and local governments as well as development partners in its implementation. To be frank, the potential for chaos exists in this program. The Nigerian state has never coped very well where large numbers are involved. Since state governments are to co-fund it, problems could arise. School authorities in Nigeria have often connived with local entrepreneurs to short change the system, so efforts must be made to curb corruption in the plan’s implementation.
Finally, we urge the Presidency to hasten the launch of its remaining Social Investment Programs namely Conditional Cash Transfer that pays N5000 monthly to one million Nigerians, Micro-Credit Scheme for 1.5 million Nigerians and the education support grant program for 100,000 tertiary students in science, technology and engineering. It is already June, and we have only six months remaining this year to make a dent on a very difficult economic and social climate for Nigerians.