N5000 stipend not free money - Minister says

The Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr. Chris Ngige, has said that the N5,000 stipend promised by the All Progressives Congress (APC) government for unemployed youth is not free money.

Speaking to newsmen on Thursday, Jan. 14, at the national secretariat of the APC in Abuja, he said that nowhere in the world is free money given to citizens, noting Nigeria will not be an exception.

He said: “We also have the programme on the commission cash transfer. Though even you, the press, has said it, we won’t pay N5,000 for people to be indolent. No country in the world would pay people to go home and sleep and collect cash. So, Nigeria would not be an exception.

“We will pay some people N5,000, we will pay some N10,000, and even for people in teacher conversion scheme, we will pay more than N10,000 and N15,000 as stipend while in training, and then after the training, they are going to be employed by state government and the Federal Government in different institutions.

“It is not a programme we shall run alone, the state governments are going to buy into it. They are going to synchronize with us. We are going to do it in synergy.”

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He added that some of the programmes will “span through Ministry of Education, Ministry of Agriculture and Ministry of Labour.

“Agriculture, because we have some agricultural universities, we will convert some people to teach the relevant agricultural science.”

The federal government announced late last year that it will pay the stipend following criticisms from Nigerian youths, demanding that the APC-led government should fulfil its campaign promise.