Delayed Payment: Keyamo Appeals To Participants Of Public Works Programme, Says Only N26bn Released By Govt

The Federal Government has disclosed plans to commence payment of the second phase of stipends to the participants of the 774,000 Special Public Works (SPW) programme.

The Minister of State for Labour and Employment, Festus Keyamo, disclosed this on Monday via his twitter handle.

Recall, the government in April had begun the payment of N20, 000 stipends to the 774,0000 participants of the program.

The program which was inaugurated in January 2021, comprised of 1,000 beneficiaries from each of the 774 local governments across the country.

The government had earmarked a total sum of N52bn for the programme, which is expected to last three months.

However, the minister explained that only N26bn has so far been released for the programme.

Kayamo, noting the some beneficiaries were yet to receive the first tranche of the payment, assured that efforts were ongoing to resolve the identified problems.

“We want to appeal to everyone, especially those who have not received their first tranche from those two banks, that they will be paid, and everybody will be duly paid before the second tranche begins. And the second tranche will begin soon.

“We don’t want to make errors in haste, especially for me. This is a programme put under my care by Mr. President. I want to make sure that it is fraud-free. That is why I am ensuring that all indices of fraud are eliminated in those accounts before they are credited,” he said.