The Federal Government on Thursday announced it has begun the selection process for applicants who indicated interest to be employed under the N-Power Batch C.
The Minister of Humanitarian Affairs Disaster Management and Social Development Sadiya Farouq had last year announced that over five million applications were received.
The online application process, which began on Friday, June 26, 2020, closed at midnight on August 8th, 2020.
As part of measures to however make the selection process seamless and transparent, the minister has launched a portal, National Social Investment Management System (NASIMS) for ease of coordination, deployment and management.
She noted all applicants have been migrated onto the NASIMS platform, adding they would be required to undergo a mandatory online test as part of the selection process.
According to her, the Batch C programme will run for 12 months adding that each beneficiary will be paid a monthly stipend of N30,000.
The Minister also attributed the delay in the entire process to the outbreak of COVID-19.
Speaking on why the portal was created, the minister said: “Based on the implementation experiences since 2016, and the impact of the Covid-19, these Social Intervention Programmes are undergoing a series of strategic realignment and restructuring with the view to optimise their operations, maximise their impacts and drive efficient coordination and management aimed to deliver even more socio-economic benefits to the poor and vulnerable.”
On the number of people that will be recruited, she said: “We have reached another milestone in the process of recruiting and onboarding of the Batch C N-Power beneficiaries beginning with 500,000 beneficiaries. The N-Power Batch C as launched today is structured to onboard one million new beneficiaries, beginning with an initial 500,000 beneficiaries in the first stream, and a subsequent 500,000 in a second stream, all aligned to the National policy drive of lifting 100 million people out of abject poverty in 10 years.
“To ensure transparency, institutional memory and dynamic impact assessment of the N-Power duster, it will now be administered through the National Social Investment & Information Management System (NASIMS) designed to optimise and complement the structural reforms of Social Investment Programs and other activities of the Ministry with the systemic use of ICT tools for coordination, administration, monitoring, and stakeholder management across the entire process and value chain of all social investment programmes under the purview of the Ministry.
“By commencing the administration of the N-Power Batch C through the National Social Investment & Information Management System (NASIMS), beneficiaries will be able to receive their stipends in a timely and efficient manner, have access to a wide range of industry-specific contents for optimised learning experience leveraging the enterprise learning management module of the NASIMS.”
She expressed optimism that the new platform will address issues and concerns witnessed in the past.
Highlighting some of the things expected of the applicants, she said: “As we launch the N-Power Batch C today, all N-Power Batch C applicants are required to log into the N-Power Self Service portal on www.nasims.gov.ng and update their records, following which they may proceed to take the mandatory online test in order to progress to the next level of selection. Further information on how to log into the portal will be sent via sms and email to Batch C applicants.
“It is worth noting that the selection process for the N-Power program is predicated on merit and equitable representation across all strata of the country. consequently, the processes and criteria for selection will ensure equitable regional as well as gender representation. Furthermore, special considerations for the inclusion of persons living with disabilities have been taken into account by the Ministry.
“In light of the safety concerns due to the ongoing covid-19 pandemic, the Ministry has taken concrete steps to ensure the recruitment and onboarding of N-Power beneficiaries in full compliance with the relevant public safety protocols and guidelines. Consequently, a greater percentage of the onboarding process will be carried out online and in a decentralized manner via the utilization of the NASIMS framework.”
