Employment: Finally, Buhari’s Minister reveals when 774.000 young Nigerians ‘ll be recruited

Minister of State for Labour and Employment Festus Keyamo, SAN, has said the Special Public Works (SPW) programme which seeks to recruit 774,000 young Nigerians would  commence on October 1, 2020.

He also told journalists that 10 percent of the total beneficiaries would be allocated to political office holders such as governors, ministers, senators, and members of the  House of Representatives. 

The minister disclosed that a website would be developed to input information on the composition and contact of the Selection Committees, list of the selected beneficiaries as well as chosen projects to be executed would be displayed for the public.

The programme, which was approved by President Muhammadu Buhari, was to engage 1000 unemployed Nigerians from each of the 774 local governments of the country and is designed to mitigate lack of job opportunities in the rural areas through a short-term of three months.

Beneficiaries of the  programme, he said, were also expected to be provided with a modest stipends of N20.000 monthly to undertake roads rehabilitation and social housing construction, urban and rural sanitation, health extension and other critical services. 

 “Consequently, in line with Section 16(1) of the N.D.E Act, I have decided to constitute special committees in each State of the Federation for the purpose of deliberating, selecting and recommending to my office the names of the 1,000 persons from each of the Local Government Areas in the States to be engaged for this programme. 

“The Committees would also identify the projects to be executed in those L.G.As. These special committees would be known as the State Selection Committees of the Special Public Works (SPW).”

Speaking on the composition of members of the State Selection Committees, the minister said such individuals would not be persons holding any official position in any of the registered political parties. 

 “If any of those listed also doubles as an official of any political party, then the State Chairman of the Selection Committee of the SPW shall fill that position with another person representing that interest. We have stated this in order to make this process as apolitical as possible.

“President Muhammadu Buhari has approved the use of select banks to register and collate data of the beneficiaries. The banks will open accounts for all beneficiaries and in the process obtain BVN for those without accounts”.


According to him, all payments would be made from the CBN directly to the accounts of the beneficiaries. 

Leave a Reply