President Buhari Approves Funds For Beneficiaries of 774,000 Works Programme

President Muhammadu Buhari has ordered the release of funds for the payment of 774,000 beneficiaries of the Federal Government’s Public Works Programme.

The Minister of State for Labour and Employment, Mr Festus Keyamo, made this known through a series of tweets stating that he has directed the National Directorate of Employment to commence the payments.

In his tweet, “President Muhammadu Buhari has graciously directed a release of the funds for the payment of stipends to the 774,000 participants of the SPW programme. I have consequently directed the NDE to begin processing the payments and participants should begin to receive payments soon.

“In order to eliminate fraud and/or double payments, I have also directed that every payment to participants should be made using the BVN of their accounts so we can have an audit trail of every single payment. Those who registered with different names shouldn’t expect payments”.

Under the scheme, 774,000 people are expected to be recruited by the Federal Government with the sum of N52 billion, earmarked in the 2020 budget.1,000 persons are to be employed from each of the 774 Local Government Areas in the country, for the programme which is said to be a post-COVID-19 poverty alleviation initiative, approved by President Muhammadu Buhari.