PODE (Issue 22): N-Power Update

A first batch of 200,000 unemployed Nigerian graduates has now been selected and notified for the N-Power Volunteer Corps, NPVC.

The NPVC is a two-year programme that seeks to engage and train 500,000 young unemployed graduates to undertake volunteering assignments in formal and civic education, agriculture extension advisory services and public health promotion, in their local communities. NPVC members are divided into three sub-groups: N-Power Teach, N-Power Agro and N-Power Health.

The 200,000 beneficiaries were selected from across Nigeria’s 36 States and the Federal Capital Territory. 46% of those selected are females, while a total of 1126 were successful applicants with disabilities.

More than 90 percent of the selected persons have been verified using the Bank Verification Number, which works to ensure that monthly payments are transparently done, and there is no room for fraud or abuse. Besides the BVN, there will also be a physical verification, to authenticate the information submitted online during the application (i.e. academic credentials and residence status). 

Beneficiaries will be paid a monthly stipend of N30,000 each, for the duration of the programme, starting from December 2016.

Those not selected in this first batch are now on the waiting list, and would automatically be considered again for subsequent batches. There are still another 300,000 beneficiaries to be selected within the 2016 budget cycle.

Find more information on the selection process here

Policy source: Aso Villa Newsletter

PODE (Issue 22): Highway Projects

Federal Capital Spending (2015 v 2016)

  • Amount Budgeted in 2015: 20.64 billion naira
  • Amount Released in 2015: 12.58 billion naira
  • Amount Budgeted in 2016: 251.22 billion naira
  • Amount Released So Far in 2016: 124.81 billion naira

Selected Ongoing Road Projects across Nigeria (to which Contractors have been re-mobilized in recent months)

  • Loko-Oweto Bridge across River Benue, in Benue and Nasarawa States (North Central)
  • Ilorin-Jebba Road (North Central)
  • Dualization of Kano-Katsina Road (Northwest)
  • Sokoto-Tambuwal-Makera-Kontagora Road (Northwest)
  • Dualization of Kano-Maiduguri Road Section IV (Northeast)
  • Sagamu-Ibadan and Sagamu-Lagos Expressway (Southwest)
  • Dualization of Ikot Ekpene Border-Aba-Owerri Road (South South/Southeast)
  • Oji-Achi-Obeagu-Mmaku-Awgu-Ndeaboh-Mpu-Okpanku Road (Southeast)
  • Abriba–Arochukwu–Ohafia Road (Southeast)
  • Port Harcourt-Aba Road (Southeast)
  • Outstanding Sections of Benin-Ofosu-Ore-Ajebandele-Sagamu Expressway Phase III (Southwest/South South)

Policy source: Aso Villa Newsletter

PODE (Issue 22): Culture & Tourism

The Federal Ministry of Information and Culture is working on the presentation of 3 bills to the National Assembly, as follows:
  • A Bill for the Establishment of a National Endowment for the Arts (NEA)
  • A Bill for the Establishment of a Motion Picture Council of Nigeria (MOPICON), to provide a self-regulatory framework to guide and standardize the activities of Nigeria’s movie industry
  • A Bill for the Establishment of the Tourism Development Fund (TDF), to provide funds for training and project development
On 23 November Minister Lai Mohammed inaugurated a Technical Committee on the Review of Nigeria’s decade-old National Tourism Development Master Plan.

From the 5th of December 2016, the Ministry will host a sectoral support mission from the UN World Tourism Organization (UNWTO)

Policy source: Aso Villa Newsletter