President Muhammadu Buhari has approved an additional N4,500 monthly electronic device grant each for the 200,000 beneficiaries of the N-power graduate employment scheme.
The Senior Special Assistant to the Vice President on Media and Publicity, Laolu Akande, in a statement yesterday, said the grant was in conjunction with the Bank of Industry which had extended an asset finance of 20 months to each of the 200,000 beneficiaries.
Akande said the device would be loaded with different applications that would enhance the skills of the 200,000 beneficiaries of the first batch of the 500,000 jobs promised by Buhari’s administration.
He said after verification, each of the beneficiaries would select their choice of device amongst nine different BOI pre-approved vendors, “the price ranges from N3,000 to N6,7000 monthly deductions for the next 20months.
“Therefore, in some cases, the N4,500 device grant will cover the full monthly deduction cost; while in other cases, the graduate authorises BOI to deduct the additional differential cost from their monthly stipends depending on the device chosen.”
He said six of the nine pre-approved vendors were indigenous local brands “in pursuit of the Buhari administration’s push for local content.”
Akande, who said about 100,000 beneficiaries had so far ordered for the devices, noted that the plan was to conduct the order of the devices in two batches of 100,000 each.
