Why we haven not Paid some N-Power beneficiaries – Sadiya Umar Farouq

The federal government, Thursday, said it did not pay 14,020 enrollees in the just ended batches of N-Power programme because the affected beneficiaries’ account details were found to be already existing in other ministries, departments, and agencies. The government which noted that the actions of the enrollees were against the established rule of the N-Power programme, regretted that the development affected some genuine and eligible beneficiaries.

But it said it was looking into such cases with a view to solving them soon.

The Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management, and Social Development, in a statement through its Deputy Director, Press, Rhoda Iliya, reacted following complaints lodged by some beneficiaries who claimed they did not receive their payments running up to four months before the end of the just-concluded batches. “The Honourable Minister, Sadiya Umar Farouq, regrets any inconvenience this might have caused genuine and eligible beneficiaries just as the Office of the Accountant General, saddled with the responsibility of the filtering out those denied is working assiduously to remedy the situation,” the statement said. It read in full: “The attention of the Federal Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development have been drawn to the complaint of non-payment of some N-Power beneficiaries during the last exercise, with some alleging non-payment for upward of four months. “For the records, the Ministry wishes to state that it had always processed, approved and remit necessary information for payments to the Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation, OAGF, whose responsibility it is to credit the various accounts of the beneficiaries using the Government Integrated Financial and Management Information System, GIFMIS platform as directed by the Federal Government of Nigeria.

“However, after receiving a complaint of non-payment by some beneficiaries who did same through the ministry, the OAGF (GIFMIS) officially wrote informing the ministry that out of a total of 516,600 N-Power beneficiaries data sent to OAGF for migration in April 2020, only a total of 502,580 data have successfully migrated to the GIFMIS platform, while a total of 14,020 beneficiaries were returned because the beneficiaries’ account details already exist in other MDAs, which is against the established rule of the N-Power programme. This is verifiable. “The Honourable Minister, Sadiya Umar Farouq, regrets any inconvenience this might have caused genuine and eligible beneficiaries just as the OAGF saddled with the responsibility of the filtering out those denied is working assiduously to remedy the situation.”