THE N-POWER PROGRAMME IMPACT ON MINIMIZING POVERTY

1.1 Introduction

The N-Power Agro volunteers are meant to function as intermediaries between research and farmers. They operate as facilitators and communicators, helping farmers in their decision-making and ensuring that appropriate knowledge is implemented to obtain the best results on farms. Through the N-Power Health programme, young graduates who form part of the 500,000 N-Power Corps members are trained to work as public health assistants. They teach preventive health to community members including pregnant women, children, families and individuals. They are also trained to provide basic diagnostic services (Aderonmu, 2017).

As a prelude to other parts of this study, this chapter will discuss the background upon which this study was initiated, the statement of problems that led to this study, the Aim and Objectives of the study. Others are Significance of the study, Scope of work, Research hypothesis and questions, Limitations of the Study and Definition of technical terms.

1.2 Background of Study

Indeed, the N-Power programme has become a household name and has continued to generate some controversy, although the government is living up to its billing in addressing concerns raised in association with the programme. Explaining the rationale behind the programme, a highly placed government official says, the N-Power Programme of the Federal Government is a job creation and empowerment initiative of the Social Investment Programme, designed to drastically reduce youth empowerment in Nigeria (Obadan, 2017). The focus is to provide our young graduates and non-graduates with the skills, tools and livelihood to enable them advance from empowerment to empowerment, entrepreneurship and innovation.

Perhaps to further demonstrate the fact that it was aimed at addressing the challenges of empowerment, it forerunners categorized it into Graduate Teachers Corps which targeted 500,000 graduates recruitment, N-Power Knowledge targeting 25,000 non-graduates recruitment and N-Power Build which targets 75,000 nongraduates’ recruitment. It was gathered that the 500,000 graduates under the N-Power Corps programme will get computing devices that will contain information necessary for their specific engagement, as well as information for their continuous training and development. Participants are to provide teaching, instructional, and advisory solutions in 4 key areas namely agriculture, health, power tech and community education (Oba, 2017).

The N-Power Teach programme engages qualified graduates for the benefit of basic education delivery in Nigeria. They are deployed as teaching assistants in primary and secondary schools across Nigeria. They are not to replace the current teachers, but are to work as support teachers, assisting with teaching, school management and other functions within the schools. They assist in taking basic education to children in marginalized communities (Aderonmu, 2017).

There is also the N-Power Knowledge programme which is the Federal Government’s first step towards diversifying to a knowledge economy. This programme works alongside the planned eight innovation hubs across the country to provide incubation and acceleration of the technology and creative industries. The programme is a ‘Training to Jobs’ initiative, essentially ensuring that participants can get engaged in the marketplace in an outsourcing capacity, as freelancers, as employees and as entrepreneurs (Federal Ministry of Youth Development, 2017).

Indeed, the programme is carefully designed in such a manner that if well implemented, can help in further addressing the challenges of empowerment and subsequently, reduce poverty among the youths. But then of course, there appears to be some confusion of some sort in the way and manner the programme is being handled. The programme could not kick off in most states as scheduled. Some of the controversies included the fact that the names released so far are reportedly fraught with ‘ghost names’ (Bennel, 2018).

Poverty alleviation remains a major challenge of modern economies around the world today, Nigeria is no exception. Resulting from poor enterprise culture, the poverty alleviation programme in Nigeria is now a major driver of poverty and social vices. The poverty alleviation programmes in Nigeria have assumed multi-dimensional phenomena cutting across all facets of age group, educational strata and geographies. Poverty alleviation programmes are unevenly distributed across the age groups with youth between the ages of 18-35 being the greatest beneficiaries. More disturbing today, is the ever-rising trend of youth poverty alleviation programmes in the country. The effective implementation of the programmes will discourage them from engaging in social vices which constrain in Lavun Local Government Area, Niger State. This study therefore seeks to examine the impact of N-Power Programme on Poverty Alleviation in Nigeria (A study of Lavun Local Government Area, Niger State).

Some systemic hiccups, including insufficient information and wrong Bank Verification Number (BVN) have been identified as factors threatening to wreck the N-Power programme, introduced by the Federal Government, as a social safety net to reduce the rate of graduate unemployment plaguing the country. Specifically, the programme, which took off in December 2016 year is designed to provide a stopgap for 500,000 unemployed graduates of tertiary institutions over the next two years (Bennel, 2018).

While the Federal Government is responsible for their monthly stipends, it is in partnership with state governments to verify selected unemployed graduates and deploy them to their places of primary assignment. Volunteer graduates are expected to serve in the communities where they are resident.

Under the programme, the first batch of 200,000 participants are to be paid N30, 000 a month and deployed by the respective state governments and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) to their different places of assignment, including classrooms as teachers (Federal Ministry of Youth Development, 2017). But some months into the programme, it has started facing different challenges, with about 13,000 participants alleging that they have not been paid their monthly stipend (Aderonmu, 2017).

For instance, the Nigeria Interbank Systems (NIBSS), which provides the technical support for the programme has identified sundry challenges, including failure on the part of the beneficiaries to input correct Bank Verification Numbers (BVN) and other details to match the information initially provided for processing. Funmi Olowosulu, a participant who was posted to LGEA Primary School, Lokoguma, Kogi State, where she teaches, is yet to receive her monthly stipend of N30, 000 three months after enrolling in the programme, because of inconsistency in her personal details, as well as her Bank Verification Number (BVN) (Bennel, 2018).

Another beneficiary, Umar Abdulrasheed, who spends N80 daily on transportation to work, has also not received his stipend for the same number of months. Additionally, he is indebted to his neighbours who usually bail him out of financial difficulties in the hope that he would defray same once his stipends are paid. The situation is not different in Rivers, Edo, Enugu and Kaduna states, where participants have protested and called on the Federal Government to come to their aid by addressing the numerous challenges facing the smooth operation of the programme. A good number of participants in the programme are frustrated because their expectations were yet to be met, three months after the programme kicked off (Aderonmu, 2017).

Therefore, in Lavun Local Government where the research was carried out, the activities that was conducted is to know the Impact of N-Power Programmes on Poverty Alleviation.

1.3 Statement of Problems

Besides, some of the participants are disqualified for various reasons, ranging from being over-age, to falsification of information and being currently gainfully employed. Already, Lavun Local Government Area, Niger State government, in collaboration with the Federal Government has embarked on another verification exercise in order to afford those that missed out in the first phase come on board. The efforts on the part of the government in alleviating and eradicating poverty among the youth in Lavun Local Government Area, Niger State have paradoxically led to more problems for the youth in the state. This study is therefore faced with the problem of appraising the impact of N-Power Programme on Poverty Alleviation in Lavun Local Government Area, Niger State, Nigeria.

1.4 Aim and Objectives of the Study

The aim of the study is to evaluate the impact of N-Power Programme on Poverty Alleviation in Nigeria: A study of Lavun Local Government Area, Niger State. Specific objectives of the study therefore, are:

1. To ascertain the activities of N-Power Agency towards poverty alleviation in Lavun Local Government Area, Niger State
2. To determine the extent to which N-Power programmes generate empowerment for the youths in Lavun Local Government Area, Niger State.
3. To ascertain how N-Power Programmes alleviate poverty in Lavun Local Government Area, Niger State.
4. To identify the problems affecting N-Power Agency/programmes towards poverty alleviation in Lavun Local Government Area, Niger State.

1.5 Research Questions

The study came up with research questions so as to be able to ascertain the above stated objectives. The specific research questions for the study are stated below as follows:

• What are the activities of N-Power Agency towards poverty alleviation in Lavun Local Government Area, Niger State
• To what extent do N-Power programmes generate empowerment for the youth in Lavun Local Government Area, Niger State?
• How would N-Power Programmes alleviate poverty in Lavun Local Government Area, Niger State?
• What are some of problems affecting N-Power programmes towards poverty alleviation in Lavun Local Government Area, Niger State?

1.6 Research Hypothesis

In order to pursue the objective of this study, the following generalized statements have been designed to guide and aids in obtaining the result for the experiment to be conducted. For this work, the null hypothesis will be represented with H0 while the alternative hypothesis will be represented with hypothesis H1.

Hypothesis One

• H0: There is no significant relationship between the activities of N-Power Agency/programmes and poverty alleviation in Lavun Local Government Area, Niger State.
• H1: There is a significant relationship between the activities of N-Power Agency/programmes and poverty alleviation in Lavun Local Government Area, Niger State.

Hypothesis Two

• H0: There is no significant relationship between N-Power programmes and empowerment of the youths in Lavun Local Government Area, Niger State.
• H1: There is a significant relationship between N-Power programmes and empowerment of the youths in Lavun Local Government Area, Niger State.

1.7 Significance of Study

The study is relevant in the following ways;

1. It helps to empower and equip the young Nigerians with relevant technical skills and certification so they can start-up or become innovators in both the domestic and global market and as well make a positive impact in boosting the economy of Nigeria.
2. N-power recruitment helps to reduce the current level of unemployment in Nigeria. Nigerian youths will start getting busy with something productive and profitable other than sitting at home and wasting their intellectual resources and also battling with Frustration, depression, suicidal thoughts, etc.
3. It is a great opportunity for the fresh graduates who are willing to venture into business of their own to save more money for capital in addition to their little savings from the monthly allowance given to them during their youth service by the government.

Besides, the study will serve as reference material for subsequent researcher in the field or related topics.

1.8 Scope of Study

The study focuses on the impact of N-Power Programmes on Poverty Alleviation using Lavun Local Government Area in Niger State as a case study.

1.9 Limitations of the Study

During the course of this study, many things militated against its completion, some of which are:

1. Time Constraint: The time frame given to accomplish this project was very short due to school academic calendar and it was carried out under pressure which made the researcher not to implement some necessary features.
2. Establishment Policies: Establishment policies posed a serious limitation as most staffs are not ready to release information needed for this project work. There were lots of information needed from the staffs of this establishment to enhance the study which took them time to release or they did not release at all for security purposes, hence the scope was reduced.
3. Research material: availability of research material is a major setback to the scope of the study.
4. Frequent power failure: This made the researcher append more money on fuel to ensure sustainable power.
5. Financial Constraint: Insufficient fund tends to impede the efficiency of the researcher in sourcing for the relevant materials, literature or information and in the process of data collection (internet, questionnaire and interview).