All the 774,000 participants of the Extended Special Public Works (ESPW) programme have been given a new instruction by the federal government.

In a statement issued on Monday by Festus Keyamo, the Minister of State for Labour and Employment, the Federal Government, all the participants who have no problems with their respective bank accounts have been directed to immediately proceed to their banks and clarify issues.

The Federal Government met with the seven banks handling payment of N20,000 stipends for 774,000 participants of the ESPW programme yesterday.

The statement read in part, “For those who do not have problems with their BVNs but have not received payments, they should go to the banks that registered them to clarify the issues.

“The banks are mandated to issue ATM cards to all participants. Participants are therefore encouraged to collect their ATM cards from the banks so that they can access their payments from various cash points without necessarily going to the banks.

“Participants are assured that their stipends would be paid as soon as all issues are resolved.

“Consequently, selected participants are at liberty to approach any of the seven selected banks nearest to the Local Government where they were selected. The Banks are Access, FCMB, Fidelity, Heritage, UBA, Yobe MFB and Zenith.

“So far, the NDE has authorized the payments of one-month stipends to all those that have been verified. As shown above, all parties are making strenuous efforts to resolve issues of those yet to receive the first month stipends before the commencement of the second tranche of payments.”

Recall that the SPW programme planned to employ 1,000 Nigerians from every of the 774 Local Government Areas in the country.

The initiative ran into delays following the power play between Keyamo and the Director-General, National Directorate of Employment, Dr Nasiru Mohammed Ladan Argungu, who was sacked last year’s December.

Every one of the 774,000 workers will get N20,000 monthly for three months duration of the job.

President Muhammadu Buhari had since directed a release of funds for the payment of stipends to the 774,000 participants of the Special Public Works (SPW) programme.

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