FG to pay jobless youths N20,000 monthly to sweep markets and clear gutters

The Minister of State for Labour and

Employment, Mr Festus Keyamo ( SAN ) ,

said this at a news conference on

Thursday.

Keyamo said the scheme targeted 1 ,000

youths each from the 774 local

governments across the country.

The minister said the 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 .

The PUNCH reports that the scheme ,

known as the Special Public Works

Programme in the Rural Areas , is

domiciled in the National Directorate of

Employment for implementation and is

expected to take off in October .

The minister’s speech read in part, “ The

pilot programme earlier approved by Mr .

President was designed to mitigate lack of

job opportunities in the rural areas

through a short- term engagement of 1 ,000

unemployed persons per local

government area for a period of three

months .

“ It is a dry season / off - season transient job

programme and was originally designed

for the rehabilitation /maintenance of

public and social infrastructure.

Participants were to be paid an allowance

of N 20 ,000 monthly and were to be

recruited largely from the pool of

unskilled persons resident in those rural

areas.

“ This pilot scheme was approved to be

implemented in five local government

areas in eight states namely: Adamawa,

Borno , Ebonyi, Edo , Ekiti , Jigawa , Katsina

and Kwara . Beneficiaries are engaged in :

drainage digging and clearance , irrigation

canals clearance , rural feeder road

maintenance , maintenance of the Great

Green Wall nurseries and orchards in

Borno , Jigawa and Katsina states ; traffic

control , street cleaning , cleaning of public

infrastructure like health centres , schools

and the likes . A total of 40 ,000 direct

transient jobs were expected to be created

in the eight pilot states .”