The Federal Government has flagged off the N-Power Batch C Stream 1 Programme for the 36 states of the Federation induding the FCT with 510,000 volunteers.
Under the scheme, a total of 450,000 people are selected under the graduate component while 60,000 beneficiaries will be a non-graduate N-Power volunteer corps.
The Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, Sadiya Umar-Farouq, who led off the scheme yesterday in Abuja, said the graduates would be placed on a monthly stipend of N30,000 for a period of one year while the non-graduate beneficiaries will earn N10,000 monthly stipend for a period of nine months.
She said all the beneficiaries were granted an appropriate starter pack for their trade to enable them to start their businesses in their chosen trades.
The graduate programme is further sub-divided into N-Teach under which volunteers are trained and attached as assistant teachers in primary schools, the N-Agro volunteers are attached as extension agents to support farmers to obtain better performance, while the N-Health volunteers are trained and attached to work as public health assistants mainly in public primary healthcare facilities.
The N-Health volunteers are also trained to provide basic diagnostic services in the Primary Health Care Development Centres and will teach preventive healthcare to community members including pregnant women, children, families and individuals especially in rural areas.
"The Non-Graduate programmme targets youth in the age bracket of 18 - 25 with a minimum of secondary school education. The programme seeks to deliver skills to job / enterprise through accelerated training and certification. They are trained, tooled and transitioned to take up jobs as electrical installation technicians, plumbing and pipe-fitting installers, masons, carpentry and joinery experts, automobile technicians, agric technician and hospitality experts," Farouq said ''
