The Minister of State for Labour and Employment, Festus Keyamo (SAN), has said that his ministry has paid N40bn to youths who benefited from the 774,000 employment scheme initiated by the Federal Government.
The Special Public Works Scheme had caused a friction between him and the House of Assembly, which wanted to be part of it.
In a statement on Friday, however, he said the project was 90% complete.
He said this in response to a move by the House of Representatives’ Committees on Youths, Labour, Finance and Appropriations, which resolved to investigate the alleged failure of the scheme.
In a statement signed by the minister’s Senior Adviser on Media and Communications, Tunde Moshood, he said, “In the said report, the House of Representatives’ Committee on Youths, Labour, Finance and Appropriations was said to have been mandated to “carry out a probe into the non-implementation of the scheme”, after a motion moved by Honourable Gudaji Kazaure on the ‘Call to investigate the Presidential Youth Empowerment Scheme’.
“However, the Scheme referred to by Hon. Kazaure is not the Special Public Works Scheme under the supervision of Festus Keyamo, SAN, but a totally different Scheme called the P-Yes under the supervision of a different Ministry/Minister. Hence, the story is a misrepresentation of facts.
“For the avoidance of doubt, the Extended Special Public Works programme has been successfully implemented by the National Directorate of Employment under the supervision of the Honourable Minister of State, Labour and Employment. The Honourable Minister is not directly or remotely in charge of the P-YES programme.
“The report of the alleged investigation into the Special Public Works Programme is therefore not just misleading but loaded with misinformation at the same time.
“The article which ties the Extended Special Public Works Programme with the Presidential Youths Empowerment Scheme, P-Yes is purely a figment of the imagination of its purveyors.
“The Extended Special Public Works Programme under the supervision of the Honourable Minister of State, Labour and Employment, Festus Keyamo, SAN has been implemented successfully with about 90% of the 774,000 ESPW participants engaged by the scheme across the nation successfully paid with over N40 billion so far.”
