The Federal Government has commenced partial N20,000 monthly payments of SPW 774,000 Jobs stipend in the country.
According to a statement by Hon. Minister of State, Labour & Employment, Festus Keyamo, SAN on Sunday in Abuja, after the release of some of the funds by the Ministry of Finance for the payment of SPW stipends, I directed a rigorous scrutiny of the accounts of the participants before payments.
The workers had grumbled about the delayed payment of theirp stipends which the government attributed to the mismatch of Bank Verification Numbers and other details supplied by the beneficiaries.
The Minister added that, "We discovered instances of accounts not matching BVNs, multiple accounts bearing a single BVN, non-existent BVNs, etc" .
Keyamo said, "Because of our determination to eliminate fraud, I further directed the NDE to write to the banks to clean up these anomalies b4 commencing payments"
He added that, "So far, only ACCESS Bank has responded with accounts verified for payments and the NDE has today commenced payments of those accounts with ACCESS Bank"
Keyamo added that, "We await the responses of ZENITH, UBA, FCMB, FIDELITY, HERITAGE & Yobe Micro-Finance Banks to clean up the anomalies"
"Our determination to ensure those selected for this programme get paid to assist them in these tough times is also matched by our determination to ensure that the programme does not spiral into a vehicle for fraud; not under the watch of Mr. President; not under my watch" he said.
