Nigeria: Why FG’s Npower volunteers won’t be absorbed into civil service, country’s talent retain rank to be affected

Federal Government through Mrs Hajiya Maryam Uwais, the Special Adviser on National Social Investment Programmes, said it would not compel state governments to absorb 136,000 youths currently employed as Teaching Assistants in various states across the country.

She believes that the youths and those in other sections of the country’s unemployment intervention programme, Npower should be able to set up small businesses after the expiration of the first phase of the programme in December.

“We cannot ask a state to employ anybody. We have given them N30, 000 monthly, the know-how, and practical experience,” she stressed during a recent public lecture in Lagos.  In 2016, Mrs Uwais had noted that Federal Government would employ 500,000 unemployed graduates in the first year of the programme.

Meanwhile, Infoprations has earlier reported the good and bad of the programme in the last 18 months. The report indicates that 88.2% assurance that Nigerian government could retain Npower volunteers in 2017. The report further indicates that country’s ability to retain the volunteers will increase to 52.8% and 52.1% in July and August respectively.

However, the current position of the Federal Government on absorbing the beneficiaries into the public service is likely to reduce the country’s capacity to retain talents being measured by the World Economic Forum through its Global Competitiveness Index. In 2017, the country was ranked 80^th and 70^th in 2018 out of 151 countries ranked throughout the world.