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Employment of 774,000 Youths: Summary of the Speech of the Hon. Minister of State for Labour and Employment, Festus Keyamo, SAN

Pin Pointing the Speech of the Honourable Minister of State for Labour and Employment, Festus Keyamo, SAN, on Guidelines for the Selection of 774,000 Temporary Workers for the Extended Special Public Works Programme Delivered Yesterday 28th May 2020:

The honourable Minister said;

1.  The Programme is expected to provide modest stipends for itinerant workers to undertake roads rehabilitation and social housing construction, urban and rural sanitation, health extension and other critical services.

2.   Having reviewed all the recommendations of this Inter-ministerial Committee, I believe that the selection of the beneficiaries and projects should be a local affair and not be done from a room in Abuja.

3.  The Committees would also identify the projects to be executed in those L.G.As.

4.  These special committees would be known as the State Selection Committees of the Special Public Works (SPW). It shall be a 20-member Committee.

5.  I wish to quickly note at this point that this is a distinct and separate Committee from the State Advisory Committee.

6.  Let me state clearly that all members of the State Selection Committees would not be persons holding any official position in any of the registered political parties.

7.  However, we are not unmindful of the fact that political office holders are also representatives of the people. We cannot also totally ignore them in the selection process.

8.  As a result and because of the need to be honest before Nigerians, the State Selection Committees would be instructed to allot to political office holders like our distinguished Senators, Honourable members, Ministers and Governors, a number in total not exceeding ten percent of the total beneficiaries in that State.

9.  I am also pleased to inform you that for the purpose of transparency and accountability in the process, the President has approved the use of selected banks to register and collate data of the beneficiaries.

10.  The monitoring process would be very transparent.

11.  The real targets for the 1,000 jobs are mostly unskilled rural workers who may not be literate enough and who can't have access to any portal.

12.  We are already at an advanced stage of discussions and negotiations with selected banks that will help us to capture, register and open bank accounts for all the beneficiaries.

13.  This programme is one of the biggest social intervention schemes to be carried out within a short period of time by any government in the history of Nigeria.

14.  The programme starts on the 1st of October, 2020 and we are already tight on schedule.

15.  A website would be developed immediately where information such as composition and contact of the Selection Committees, list of the selected beneficiaries and chosen projects would be displayed for the public.

16.  We do not want any pressure and lobbying to be directed at my office. We are passing on the responsibilities to the States Selection Committees.

17.  From now till the end of the projects, I will be holding regular press briefings to update members of the public on progress so far made.

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