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A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF THE IMPACT OF NPOWER AND SURE P

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1     Background of the Study

Poverty and unemployment are two evils that weigh on the Nigerian state at present. Reports from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) (2005) show that "the poor population has steadily increased from 17.7 million in 1988 to 66.7 million in 2004." In 2010, the National Bureau of Statistics reported that 60.9% of Nigerians lived in poverty. The World Poverty Ratchet in 2018 declared that Nigeria had adopted the despicable position of being the world capital of poverty after having overtaken India, with about 86.9 million people in extreme poverty (Vanguard, 2019). To corroborate this statement, the National Bureau of Statistics in the National Base Survey of 2012 postulates that more than half of Nigeria's young population in the country is unemployed.

Poverty and the unemployment rate continue to rise vertically, resulting in social problems of more monumental and complex proportions, trying to challenge popular government interventions to improve them. Since 1999, each government has had its signature, reducing poverty or reducing poverty, whatever it is called. The government of President Olesegun Aremu Obasanjo (1999-2007) launched the National Program for the Eradication of Poverty (NAPEP), which aims to reduce poverty. According to Anyebe (2015), NAPEP was established in 2010 as the lead agency of the federal government to eradicate extreme poverty in Nigeria. The main program of this program includes the Youth Empowerment Program and the National Resource Conservation and Development Program. The author also revealed that, despite the enormous financial implications of these programs, poverty and youth unemployment persisted.

Subsidy reinvestment program (SURE P), designed and implemented by President Goodluck Ebele Azikiwe Jonathan (2012-2014). The main SURE-P program for poverty reduction includes: Traffic System, Vocational Training Program and Community Service / Employment of Women and Youth (CSWYE). This initiative has been severely criticized for its lack of transparency and corruption on a large scale. Abu (2015), in a study on the program of reinvestment of subsidies and job creation in Nigeria (2012-2014), concluded that the program had not left unemployed the creation of employment in Nigeria. Youth and poverty on a large scale in the country remained high.

The SURE-P and N-Power programmes are two programmes that can never be trivially considered in the light of government social intervention and job creation in Nigeria in recent times. Whereas the former was a conscious effort of Goodluck Ebele Jonathan’s regime to provide employment to graduates through reinvesting money derived from fuel subsidy removal in job creation for the Nigerian citizens. The latter was a social intervention programme of the President Muhammadu Buhari led-administration geared towards combating the twin socio-economic demons of poverty and unemployment especially among youths between age 18 and 35years (N-SIP, 2018). These two social intervention programmes of recent governments which are geared towards job creation and amelioration of the menace of unemployment in Nigeria constitute the focus of this paper.

It is crystal clear that from the motive of initiating the SURE-P and N-Power programmes as succinctly enunciated above, that the programmes are laudable in purpose and are keys to closing the doors of unemployment problems in Nigeria. However, the problems of unemployment persist within the Nigerian social environment and are even tremendously increasing despite the existence of these programmes; thus, leaving all beholder with the question of how and why is this possible. It is in a bid to answer this overlying question that this research paper was undertaken to ascertain the extent to which these programmes have solved the problems of unemployment in Nigeria through job creation and to determine the factor responsible for the persistent unemployment in Nigeria in the face of the existence of these programmes.

The response of several administrators to the problems of poverty seems to have been largely ad hoc and uncoordinated. A recent survey on policies and interventions describes 28 federal projects and programs focused on poverty reduction. Several state governments have also launched programs to reduce poverty.

With the advent of a democratic government in 1999, measures were adopted to rationalize institutions related to poverty, review previous programs against poverty and harmonize sectoral efforts. Although none of these programs was completely unfounded, none of them had a significant positive effect, lasting or lasting.

Hence the imperative need to critically analyze several poverty reduction programs and their achievements in the development of our community. It is hoped that the results of this study will provide useful strategies that, once adopted, would have the impact of poverty alleviation programs on community development.

The administration of President Muhammadu Buhari has designed and implemented the ongoing National Social Investment Program (NSIP) as a strategy to combat poverty and unemployment. The NSIP program was created to allow citizens to come out of the double scourge of poverty and unemployment mentioned above through capacity building, investment and direct financial support. It is against this back drop that this study was aimed at comparatively assessing the impact of N-Power and Sure-P schemes in Nigeria.

1.2      Statement of the Problem

Poverty and unemployment continue to be one of the most serious social problems in Nigeria today. Available data from NBS (2010) show that more than half of the Nigerian population currently lives in poverty and remains a worrying phenomenon that requires urgent national attention. This is not related to the fact that the poverty rate persists and that it has remained unchanged in society, leaving room for other social vices such as armed robbery, robbery, etc. As corroborated by Olajide and Diah (2017). Be linked to the growing poverty rate.

To solve this problem, successive governments have implemented a series of measures, including NAPEP, SURE-P and currently the NSIP initiative. The NSIP initiative addresses a range of social issues such as poverty reduction, unemployment and increased school enrollment. The N-power initiative, a component of the job creation policy, aims to reduce poverty and unemployment and is aimed at young Nigerians. However, the creation of a policy and its implementation to achieve the stated objectives seem to be mutually exclusive in the Nigerian context, as successive governments strive to contain unsustainable poverty and monumental unemployment aimed at alleviating the precarious situation of young people Nigerians For the purpose of the fiasco, the quality of life has been ended as a result of the abysmal and porous implementation of such programs. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the impact of the N-power system and SURE P in three key areas: job creation, economic well-being and improvement of skills / employment.

1.3     Objectives of the Study

The main objective of this study is to comparatively analyze the impact of N-Power and Sure-P. The specific objectives include:

i.  To comparatively ascertain the impact of N-Power and Sure-P schemes on employment generation.

ii.  To comparatively ascertain the impact of N-Power and Sure-P schemes on the economic well-being of beneficiaries.

iii.  To comparatively ascertain the relationship between N-Power and Sure-P schemes and skill-job enhancement in Nigeria.

1.4     Research Questions

The following research objectives were formulated to guide the study

1.     Do the NPower and Sure P schemes lead to employment generation?

2.     To what extent do the NPower and Sure-P schemes significantly affect the economic well-being of beneficiaries?

3.     Is there a significant relationship between the N – Power scheme and skill – job enhancement?

4.     Is there a significant relationship between the Sure-P scheme and skill – job enhancement?

1.5     Research Hypotheses

HO1: There is no significant difference between the NPower Scheme and SURE P scheme in employment generation

HO2: There is no significant relationship between N- Power Scheme and SURE P scheme in the economic well being of beneficiaries and

HO3: There is no significant relationship between the N- Power Scheme and SURE P scheme in skill – job enhancement

1.6     Significance of the Study

The result of this study will not doubt to a large extent expose the weaknesses and achievements of past poverty alleviation programmes.

Equally, it would provide basis for effective guidance for the facilitators to modify/reinforce their attitude towards achieving the set goals for the programmes put in place.

It is also believed that the result of this study will avail the government the opportunity to study past attempts at alleviating poverty to see where their mistakes lies and then devise a means for progress in this regard

This study will be of immense benefit to other researchers who intend to know more on this study and can also be used by non-researchers to build more on their research work. This study contributes to knowledge and could serve as a guide for other study.

1.7     Scope of the Study

The study scope is limited to a comparative analysis of the impact of N POWER And SURE-P in Lagos state.

1.8     Limitations of the study

The demanding schedule of respondents at work made it very difficult getting the respondents to participate in the survey. As a result, retrieving copies of questionnaire in timely fashion was very challenging. Also, the researcher is a student and therefore has limited time as well as resources in covering extensive literature available in conducting this research. Information provided by the researcher may not hold true for all businesses or organizations but is restricted to the selected organization used as a study in this research especially in the locality where this study is being conducted. Finally, the researcher is restricted only to the evidence provided by the participants in the research and therefore cannot determine the reliability and accuracy of the information provided.

Financial constraint: Insufficient fund tends to impede the efficiency of the researcher in sourcing for the relevant materials, literature or information and in the process of data collection (internet, questionnaire and interview).

Time constraint: The researcher will simultaneously engage in this study with other academic work. This consequently will cut down on the time devoted for the research work.

1.9     Definition of Terms

NPower Scheme: The NPower is a scheme set up by the President of Nigeria, Muhammadu Buhari since 8 June 2016, to address the issues of youth unemployment and help increase social development.

Sure P: The Subsidy Reinvestment and Empowerment Program known as 'SURE P is a scheme established by the Federal Government of Nigeria during the Jonathan Administration, to re-investing the Federal Government savings from fuel subsidy removal on critical infrastructure projects and social safety net programmes with direct impact on the citizens of Nigeria.

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