Gain job, investment experience, Imoukhuede tells N-power volunteers
NAN-H-44
Npower
Benin, June 15, 2017(NAN)Graduate participants of the N-Power volunteer scheme of the Social Investment Programme (SIP) in Benin, Edo, were told to acquire on-the-job and investment experience and use it to make their lives better.
The Presidential aide on Job Creation, Mr Afolabi Imoukhuede, gave the advice when he conducted a monitoring and evaluation of the volunteers in two schools and a Primary Health Centre in Benin.
Imoukhuede and the evaluation team from the Presidency visited Idia College, Edo College and the Ugbor Health Centre, all in Benin.
“As you perform your tasks you have to gain the experience at work so that you can better your lives after completing the programme,’’ he said.
Imoukhuede noted that some volunteers had treated the programme with levity while their serious colleagues had moved beyond waiting for stipends to opening their own businesses.
He urged the volunteers to strive to do their best to make the scheme have impact on the communities and ensure a win-win situation for themselves and the federal government.
He warned those have secured another job but still serving under the scheme to resign or be kicked out.
He stated that anyone found to be collecting the N-Power stipends while keeping another job would, besides being kicked out be made to refund all they had collected.
Imoukhuede assured those who had issues with the receipt of their payment to continue to update their data in the verification platform until they resolve the problem.
At Edo College, Imoukhuede expressed happiness that all the volunteers posted to the school understood the scheme and had applied themselves well to fulfill the objectives.
He commended them for their hard work and said that the federal government would consider resolution of outstanding payment of the December 2016 stipends after all other months in 2017 had been cleared.
“By your attendance register, you have done well, and I commend you.
“But put your heart to this job to get the value addition.
“This programme is more about you. It is an investment of at least N6 billion every month and a serious business,’’ he added.
At the Ugbor Health Centre, Imoukhuede thanked the volunteers for adding value to the medical needs of the common people.
He said they would soon be supplied with the necessary equipment to facilitate their work.
Imoukhuede enjoined them to make judicious use of the equipment to gather data that could be shared amongst the states and the federal government to improve primary healthcare.
Some of the volunteers hailed the Buhari administration for initiation of the scheme.
One of them, Mrs Veronica Okehielem, urged the federal government to sustain the programme beyond 24 months and carry the volunteers along. (NAN)
DCU/YAZ
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