Date: 2017-08-06

The Senior Special Assistant to the President on Job Creation and Youth Employment , Mr Afobabi Imoukhuede says over eight hundred and forty million Naira has been invested into the economy of KWARA state in the last six months through the N-Power programme of the Federal Government.

According to him , volunteers of the scheme in the state which presently stood at four thousand , six hundred and fifty seven are paid one hundred and forty million Naira monthly as stipends.

Mr Imoukhuede disclosed these in Ilorin , the kwara state capital while featuring on a Radio KWARA personality interview programme Playing Host.

According to him , in KWARA state alone , five thousand , five hundred and fifty nine opportunities were allocated to the volunteers but after physical verification five , two hundred and seven of them qualified while out of this figure, four thousand, six hundred and fifty seven have received their stipends from January to date.

The Senior Special Assistant also explained that about six billion Naira investment goes into the economy of the country every month from the Social Investment Programmes of the Federal Government in all the communities in the federation amounting to Forty two billion Naira in the past seven months.

He stated that it is the first time in the history of this country for any government to set aside a budget as high as five hundred billion Naira to get people out of unemployment and poverty stressing that the N-power programme has imparted and touched the lives of the Nigerian masses.

Mr Imoukhuede noted that the unemployment ratio among the Nigerian Youth which is in the bracket of eighteen and about forty is about forty eight percent which he described as ridiculously high and troubling and therefore the need for government to urgently address the issue.

According to him , the nation's unemployment rate as a country moved from fourteen point three percent in the last quarter of last year due the the economic recession that set in and assured that everything is been done by the present administration to overcome the hard times Nigerians are facing .

He disclosed that the N-Power and other Social Investment programmes of the government are not based on political party basis as those in charge of the programme have partnered with the various state governments across the federation and the Bank of Industry to take care of volunteers and other beneficiaries through soft loans.

Mr Imoukhuede therefore urged graduates and other unemployed youth in the country to key into the various scheme put in place by the government and also appealed to them to dream and embark in competence in whatever they do .