The Bauchi State Social Investment Program (SIP) has appealed to the Federal Government to introduce trades such as knitting and animal husbandry in its N-Power scheme, to particularly benefit non-graduate females.
The state SIP Focal Person, Hajiya Amina Katagum made the appeal during a town hall meeting held on Tuesday in Bauchi.
“Under the N-Power non- graduate scheme, we have skills acquisition, which include plumbing, pipe-fitting, carpentry and tilling among others.
“We are appealing to the Federal Government to introduce knitting and animal husbandry to suit our traditional needs in Bauchi and to enable our women to benefit,’’ she said.
Katagum also urged the Federal Government to extend the services of N-Power agriculture beneficiaries to two years from the current stipulated six months.
She equally asked for an additional centre for N-Power programmes across the three senatorial districts of the state.
According to her, plans are on the way to register additional 41,985 households for stipends under the Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) programme for girl-child education.
“The state has 10,994 beneficiaries under the CCT programme and we are working on identifying additional 41,985 beneficiaries to come out of school,” she said.
Katagun decried the late payment of the N10,000 bi-monthly stipends to the CCT beneficiaries and said: “for the past four months, CCT beneficiaries have not received the bi-monthly stipend. This has posed a lot of challenges,’’
Responding, Sen. Lawal Gumau, Chairman, Senate Committee on Poverty Alleviation and Social Investment Programme said that the committee was in Bauchi and would visit some other states to conduct oversight function.
He said the committee was working towards securing an exit package for the N-Power Batches ‘A’ and `B’ beneficiaries.
Gumau assured that the social investment programme would be extended to farmers in 2021 and advised beneficiaries to invest wisely as a plan to be self-reliant before exiting after two years.
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