Nigerian govt mulls scrapping N-Power, reveals exit plan for beneficiaries

The Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, Sadiya Umar Farouq, says N-power beneficiaries need not panic as the government is considering plans for their exit.

Farouq said this in Abuja yesterday when she visited the corporate headquarters of Media Trust Limited, publishers of Daily Trust titles.

“I don’t know the fears of the beneficiaries, but I know that government had this N-power programme and it’s supposed to be a two- year programme. Those in 2016 were supposed to have exited in 2018, but because there was no plan in place, the tenure was extended. So, they know from the outset that it’s not a programme that will be there for life.

“For us as a ministry, we’re looking at all options for the planned exit.
We’re not just going to exit them to their fate, we have options and we’re deploring these options so that they can have something to fall back on.

The year has just started and we hope that before the end of the year, we should come up with an exit plan,” she said.

She said the home-grown school feeding programme had been successful as almost all the states had keyed into it.

She said the ministry was working towards the early recovery of the internally displaced persons in the northeast, but would not return them to their communities until those communities were certified safe.

She said her ministry looked forward to a mutually beneficial partnership with Media Trust to deliver durable solutions to Nigerians.