Kogi targets 50,000 unemployed graduates for N-Power

The Kogi state government said it targeted 50,000 unemployed graduates for registration for the second phase of the N-Power social investment programme.

Apart from this, the state also said no fewer than 1500 professional caterers would be employed for the take-off of the Home Grown Schools Feeding (HGSF), a branch of the federal government intervention programme.

The special adviser to the governor on multilateral and donor agencies, Ibrahim Adoga, who disclosed this to newsmen in Lokoja, the state capital, said government had put machinery in place to have a hitch free exercise.

Adoga, who is also the focal person for the programme, said government had chosen a designated centre in each of the 21 local government areas of the state to enable the prospective beneficiaries register without hindrances.

He explained that the state expected that unemployed graduates with first degree, National Certificate of Education (NCE), National Diploma (ND), nurses would take advantage of the registration to benefit from the programme.

According to him, although the programme was designed by the All Progressives Congress (APC) led federal government, the beneficiaries are chosen without consideration for political affiliation.

He said the state had opened a 24-hour per day office for the registration of the unemployed graduates to ensure that the state maximally benefit from the programme aimed at further reducing poverty among the people of the country.

Adoga said the federal government had designed the programme to eliminate partisanship and favouritism, adding that over 4000 beneficiaries were allocated to the state in the first phase of the programme.

The focal person however stated that the home grown feeding programme would commence across the 2200 public primary schools in the state.

He said preparations were in top gear for the commencement of the implementation of the programme with the selection process of the caterers already started.

He said preference would be given to the people that were already cooking food for the pupils after they had been duly certified to have met the prescribed conditions.