Is Npower Solving Unemployment - What We Know

In today's latest Npower news - we will be looking at the impact of the Npower Programme in the reduction of unemployment in Nigeria as the question of whether if Npower is solving the unemployment situation has become a matter of discussion.

To answer the question of whether if Npower is solving unemployment in Nigeria, the answer is No and Yes! Why is this?

You may want to also check the Npower Discussion Group Week In Review

THE National Bureau of Statistics, NBS, on Friday, August 14, 2020, released the statistics on unemployment for the second quarter, Q2, of 2020 after a long hiatus since the third quarter, Q3, of 2018.

The percentage of unemployed people stands at 27.1 per cent. The last report which was released in 2018 showed the rate at 23 per cent. Apparently, within two years, the unemployment rate in Nigeria rose by four per cent.

What we meant by our No and Yes earlier response as to whether Npower is solving the unemployment situation in Nigeria is that Npower is an Empowerment Programme initiated by the Federal Government to provide temporary jobs by engaging the unemployed youths in some sectors to gain experience or acquire skills that will make them self reliant. See also Some Alternatives To Government Jobs In Nigeria

However, those engaged as volunteers end up disengaged and then fall back to the street as the programme only runs for a specific period of time (6 months to 1, 2 years) according to the Programme enrolled for.

The 500,000 that were engaged in 2016 and 2017 are at the moment disengaged back to their former unemployment status since a year ago. They were supposed to move to a new government Empowerment Programme called Nexit Scheme as their exit package but nothing has been heard since the closure of the nexit portal. Nevertheless, the management had said it will commence soon.

The management of the Npower Programme is on course to recruit new 1,000,000 unemployed youths, a process that begins early 2020 and is still not concluded in 2021. So when you look carefully, you will agree that Npower Programme only provides a temporary opportunity and not solving the unemployment situation. See also Top 3 Ways Npower Programme Improved Volunteers

The management of the programme needs to deploy a new strategy to make the programme effective and be sincere in handling the programme as millions of unemployed youths depend on the programme to alleviate poverty.