The Minister of State for Labour and Employment, Festus Keyamo, said on Sunday that the 774, 000 Special Public Works (SPW) jobs by the Federal government will commence on January 5th, 2020.
He said the program, which is specifically designed for artisans to do public works for three months for N20, 000 per month, ran into some “hiccups” hence the delay in the commencement date earlier announced.
On Sunday, Keyamo announced that the program will officially commence in January, 2021 as official announcement will be made on Wednesday after the end of the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting.
The minister said, “We have taken a firm decision to begin on January 5, 2021 but I am going to make an official announcement after FEC on Wednesday. We had a few hiccups in December but we have taken a decision to begin January 5 which is a Tuesday.
“The programme will run from January to March 2021 which is pure dry season. So, we are ready. All the obstacles have been removed.”
Keyamo added that only banks approved by the president would be used for the payment of the participant’s stipends. The six banks that have been enlisted for the program include Zenith, Access, Fidelity, FCMB, UBA, and Heritage bank.
He further said applicants will be paid through their bank accounts using their Bank Verification Numbers (BVN) to avoid fraud or double payment.
“As we go into the field, we need to make a few clarifications. The reason this programme was delayed in the last few weeks was because as minister, who is in charge of the implementation and supervision of this programme, we got reports from all over the country that certain unscrupulous persons were generating alternative lists, different from the ones that I approved as minister and which I directed the implementation in strict compliance with Mr president’s directives.
“The clear directive of Mr. President to me was that to ensure a fraud-free process, we should ensure that there is a clear audit trail of all payments made to all beneficiaries and as such we needed to engage selected banks who can share data with us and we needed to open special accountants for all participants in such a way that there will be an audit trail of all payments made through these selected banks,” he said.
The Minister urged Nigerians to disregard any news on the implementation of committees for the program saying the only committees for the program are the state selection committees which he inaugurated to pick applicants.
