FG to Begin Payment of N5,000 Welfare Package Next Year
The federal government has said that the payment of N5,000 promised unemployed Nigerian youths during the electioneering will commence early next year.
The Minister of Youth and Sports, Mr Solomon Dalong, disclosed this yesterday in Abuja during a courtesy visit to the National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Chief John Odigie Oyegun, to commiserate with the party on the demise of its Kogi State governorship candidate, Alhaji Abubakar Audu.
Speaking to journalists, Dalong said the APC government is willing to fulfill all the campaign promises made to Nigerians before the last elections.
“I would want the youths to understand that every promise must be backed up by budgetary provisions and our promise to pay N5,000 is not contained in the 2015 budget. So definitely it is going to begin in 2016 as we have made budgetary allocations for that.
“We are committed to the campaign promises of creating jobs, enhancing wealth creation and combating poverty. We have embedded in our manifesto things that we are translating to reality.
“Some of the youth empowerment programmes that are ongoing, we are busy reviewing them to ensure that they are more viable and people-oriented.
“We are also looking at the possibility of realigning some of them with our vision so that in the final analysis, it can add value to the people,” he said.
The minister also said that Nigerian youths needed reorientation because they had been frustrated for a long time.
“They have lost confidence in the system and we need to build that confidence back. In not too long a time, I will be hosting a stakeholders summit so that we can reason together, so that we can grow their confidence in order for them to benefit from this laudable ideas,” he added.
In his response, Oyegun expressed satisfaction with the appointment of Dalong as the youth and sports minister, saying his past stewardship in public office gives him confidence that the minister would deliver on the premises of “change”.