NSIO DISCLAIMER

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NSIO DISCLAIMER

The attention of the National Social Investments Office (NSIO) has been drawn to a purported Form designed to elicit information or documents that are not required or requested in any of the programmes. Specifically, the purported Form allegedly requests for information on the Permanent Voters Card number of the applicants.

The general public is hereby informed that none of the programmes of the NSIP makes use of any such Form(s) as a method of access.

Any Form that requests for information relating to political affiliation, PVC of applicants in the name of any of NSIO programmes or prescribes payment of application fees is either fraudulent or mischievous and should be ignored. Such Form(s) could only have been issued by fraudsters or mischief-makers who are intent on discrediting the Social Investment Programmes, which are obviously benefitting the masses. The State Focal Persons in each State, with whom we collaborate on the programmes, are appointed by their Governors, irrespective of political affiliation. They can attest to the non-partisan nature in which the programmes have been implemented so far, as can the beneficiaries.

The Leadership of this Administration has directed that any social investments in Nigerian citizens must be devoid of any political, ethnic or religious colouration. Consequently, the National Social Investments Office rejects the notion or inference that the processes under the National Social Investment Programmes are partisan. Any individual purporting to enlist applicants on the basis of political affiliation or PVC information should, therefore, be promptly reported to the local law enforcement agency.

For the avoidance of doubt, the methods through which the NSIO Programmes can be accessed are:

JOB CREATION/N-POWER

A detailed ‘Notice of Application Guidelines and Selection Criteria’ is issued prior to commencement of the application process.

All applications are submitted online at www.npower.gov.ng.

Pre-selection is done using computer algorithms designed to ensure gender balance and inclusion of physically challenged applicants in the selection.

A physical verification exercise of selected applicants is conducted in States across the country (after the completion of the objective online selection process), in order to authenticate applicants’ identity, relevant credentials, employment status and residency in the respective Local Government Area or State.

COOKS SERVICING THE HOME GROWN SCHOOL FEEDING PROGRAMME

A recruitment committee is set up and a community sensitisation exercise is conducted.

A ‘Call for Application’ is made to women in the community. Applicants must, therefore, be known and trusted, speak the local dialect, reside in the Local Government Area and be able to provide a surety from within the community who has a job or business and owns a bank account.

Selection is done based on criteria as determined by the State, and successful applicants must take and pass a compulsory medical screening at a recognised Government hospital. They are subsequently trained and equipped with standard cooking utensils.

Bank accounts are thereafter opened for the successful applicants, which Bank Verification Number is uploaded to the Federal level, and then shared for verification at the Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System (NIBBS). Once verified, payment is made directly into the Cooks’ bank accounts, to commence feeding in the selected schools.

CASH TRANSFER PROGRAMME

Rather than select beneficiaries through random or preferential methods as was done in the past, this Administration decided to first develop a National Social Register (comprising State Social Registers) of poor and vulnerable households, from which cash transfer beneficiaries would be mined. Such a Register is hosted in the Ministry of Planning of each State, after the State and LGA officials are trained to support the identification process by the community.

A tripartite method of poverty mapping, community-based targeting and proxy means testing has been adopted, to develop the Social Registers in each State. Poverty mapping is first used at Federal level to identify the poorest LGAs in a State, after which the State and LGA officials are trained on the community-based targeting process.

The State and LGA Officials then sensitise, mobilise and engage the communities in focus group discussions (comprising women, youth and elders, etc), to enable them identify the parameters of poverty in their own context, and thereafter select the households that fall within the criteria drawn up, thereby facilitating community ownership of the entire process.

Trained enumerators then visit the identified households for data collation on a technology device, for information on variables such as number of persons in the households, their ages, educational levels, gender, quality of dwellings, assets and occupation of adult members, etc, in order to determine the poorest households in a given locality.

Finally, the relatively wealthy, if captured at community level, are excluded from receiving the benefits through the utilisation of a Proximity Means Test (PMT) application on the device, which automatically ranks the status of the households collated, thereby ensuring that only those below the PMT are paid the cash transfer benefits.

One caregiver (and one alternate) in a selected household is thereafter enrolled for cash payments, training and mentorship through the State Cash Transfer Office and issued an identification card.

Direct payment is made to caregivers in the locality by the agents selected in an open and transparent procurement process.

GOVERNMENT ENTERPRISE AND EMPOWERMENT PROGRAMME (GEEP)

There are three segments of GEEP

TraderMoni (₦10,000.00, ₦15,000.00 and ₦20,000.00 loans)

Trained enumerators go into the market to register petty traders who fit the set profile, following which the registered traders are processed for disbursement.

An Applicant must be:

A petty trader; 

Have a verifiable place of trade (kiosk, table-top, spot, area of hawking).

MarketMoni (₦50,000.00 and ₦100,000.00 loans) An Applicant must:

Belong to a market association registered with the State Ministry of Commerce (or its equivalent agency);

Have a bank account and Bank Verification Number; and

Have a verifiable business.

FarmerMoni (₦300,000.00 and ₦350,000.00 loans)

An applicant must:

Belong to a farming cluster/cooperative registered with the State Ministry of Commerce (or its equivalent agency);

ii.Have a bank account and Bank Verification Number, which will be verified with NIBBS; and

Have a verifiable farming plot (inspected by a FarmerMoni agent and mapped out with GPS locator).

Any communication on the processes for accessing any of our programmes is sent through formal advertisement in national newspapers, electronic media and on the NSIP website at: htpp://n-sip.gov.ng/.

Contacts with applicants to any of our programmes are made only through our verified officials.

Maryam Uwais MFR

Special Adviser to the President on Social Investments

Office of the Vice President