THE Federal Government yesterday explained how it intends to implement the social security scheme, whereby a stipend of N5, 000 would be paid to the army of unemployed youths in the country.

Speaking to newsmen at the national secretariat of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) in Abuja yesterday, Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr. Chris Ngige maintained that the proposed stipend would not be doled out for the indolent adding that while some people will get N5, 000 under cash conversion scheme, some will also get N10, 000 while other may get more than N15, 000 while in training.

According to the minister, the beneficiaries that will access such stipend would be made to go through various trainings and skill acquisition that could position them to gain employment opportunities in the polity.

Ngige said, “We also have the programme on the commission cash transfer. Though even you the pressmen have 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 Nigerian 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, 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.”

On the Skills Acquisition Scheme, he said, “The Ministry has specialists skills acquisition centres; we have seven like that under the commissioner of skills or directorate for skills. The NDE has over 120 centres scattered all over the country, we also have those that have been built by state governments and we want to capture all of these into that scheme and then get people to the scheme; to be bricklayers, to be POP designers, builders, welders, electronics repairer and the one they called mechatronic, repair of vehicles, automobile carpentry, painting and fabrication of all sorts.

We are going to do it, teach people, give them certification, because many people do not know that Ministry of Labour is the only place that can certify tradesmen. These skills acquisition centres are in grades, we have Grade A certification, Grade B, Grade C, D and E Certification, they all still exist.

So we want to get back our youths, capture them, teach them to use their hands, and when they used their hands, they can earn money by employing themselves. If you get a bricklayer, or a painter today, you cannot pay less than N5, 000 for a daily job. And if somebody is able to work 20 days in a month for N5, 000, he already has N100, 000. But, today it is a sad story. It is Togolese, Ghanaians, people from Benin Republic, people from Niger Republic that do all these skilled job for us.

Eighty percent of workers in that specialised category in construction site all over Nigeria, be it in Abuja, in Lagos or in Onitsha, they come from outside, and we don’t know that little drops of water, form ocean, the money or the naira they are paid is repatriated to their country and all of them will come at the end of the day to put pressure on naira in the foreign exchange market,” Ngige said.

The minister added, “So we have decided that we have to train our own youths, let them use their hinds to fend for themselves. We will also want to advance some of them into entrepreneurship. If you are very good, we can open a place for you and give you money through the Bank of Industry and SMEDAN and then you move to the next stage where a number of youth will work with you.”