Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari has ordered the release of funds for the payment of 774,000 beneficiaries of the special public works programme.The country’s Minister of state for Labour and Employment, Festus Keyamo stated this on his Twitter page on Saturday and added that he has directed the National Directorate of Employment (NDE) to commence the payment.The minister wrote: “President Muhammadu Buhari has graciously directed a release of the funds for the payment of stipends to the 774,000 participants of the SPW programme. I have consequently directed the NDE to begin processing the payments and participants should begin to receive payments soon.“In order to eliminate fraud and/or double payments, I have also directed that every payment to participants should be made using the BVN of their accounts so we can have an audit trail of every single payment. Those who registered with different names shouldn’t expect payments.”The Nigerian government in July 2020 kicked off the programme after it was approved by the President as part of the fiscal stimulus measures in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.It’s expected that a total of 1,000 Nigerians from each of the country’s 774 local government areas will be beneficiaries of the programme.
