At the onset of President Muhammadu Buhari’s first tenor in 2016, the alarming rate of unemployment among Nigerian youths led his government to launch the N-Power program in a bid to tackle the challenge in the country. Since its inception, N-Power has rolled out three distinct batches (Batch A, Batch B, and Batch C) that has served in their respective states of residence under different categories such as N-power Health, N-Power Teach, N-Power Tech, N-Power Agro, and many more. Successful applicants who are lucky to be selected at the end of the recruitment exercise earn stipends ranging from N10,000 to N40, 000, depending on their qualifications and the categories they enrolled in.
The N-power program is open to all Nigerian citizens, including the disabled ones. However, an intending enrollee needs to meet certain requirements to be considered eligible for enrolment. Applying for the N-power program is easy and straightforward, intending applicants should visit their official recruitment website at npower.fmhds.gov.ng with all the necessary requirements and register for the next batch. Remember, N-Power registration does not attract any charges, it is free for all citizens.
What is the N-Power Program All About?
N-Power is a federal government-sponsored youth empowerment scheme created to deal with the challenges of unemployment among the teeming Nigerian youths and to aid in boosting social development. The scheme which was launched under President Muhammadu Buhari on the 8th of June 2016 focuses on creating a workable structure for large-scale cum relevant work skills acquisition/development. At the same time, it is expected to link its core and outcome to improving poor public services and motivating the larger economy. Created as a part of the National Social Investment Program, N-Power ensures that enrollees acquire and practice skills that will make them employable.
Only Nigerians between 18 and 35 years of age are eligible to enroll in the two-year-paid program. The government has already undertaken three batches of enrollees in the N-Power scheme and on the 13th of July 2019, they announced that paying the beneficiaries of the scheme from December 2016 to June 2019 has cost the sum of ₦279 billion.
Categories of the N-Power Program
The federal government-sponsored program is divided into two broad categories:
- N-Power Graduate Categories
- N-Power Non-Graduate Categories
N-Power Graduate Categories
Also called the N-Power Volunteer Corps, the N-Power Graduate category is the post-tertiary scheme exclusively for Nigerian graduates between the ages of 18 to 35. There is a two-year duration for the paid volunteering program and the graduates are expected to carry out their primary assignments within some identified public co-operations in their immediate communities.
Once an applicant becomes an N-Power volunteer, he or she will be entitled to computing devices through which they can get the necessary information for their specific engagements. They will also be exposed to information to aid in their continuous development, as well as training. There are four key areas where these N-Power volunteer workers are expected to provide advisory, instructional, and teaching solutions, they include;
- N-Power Agro
Volunteers under the N-Power Agro sub-category are expected to work with farmers in different parts of the country, providing them with advisory services. Their area of focus will be extension services through which they will be disseminating knowledge aggregated by the country’s agricultural body, the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.
- N-Power Health
Volunteers under N-Power Health will work with vulnerable people in their respective communities, including children, pregnant women, individuals, and families. They will be focused on promoting and improving preventive healthcare.
- N-Power Teach
Volunteers under this sub-category are charged with the responsibility of assisting in the collective effort to improve the delivery of basic education in Nigeria. These volunteers will be deployed across the country as teacher assistants.
- N-Power Tax
These N-Power volunteers will be trained to work in their respective states of residence as Community Tax Liaison Officers. They will work under the watch of the tax authorities in their states with job responsibilities like customer management, providing answers to online inquiries, creating awareness in the area of tax compliance.
N-Power Non-Graduate Categories
The federal government of Nigeria designed the N-Power Non-Graduate Category to offer training and empowerment to skilled non-graduates, offering them the needed opportunity to grow as individuals and help the economy of Nigeria at large. All successful candidates will be put through training, as well as clarification programs.
For the enrollees under the N-Power Non-Graduate category, they are expected to work in two key areas, N-Power Knowledge and N-Power Build, providing training and clarifications.
- N-Power Knowledge
The N-Power Knowledge program is Nigeria’s initial step towards the diversification of a knowledgeable economy. It is designed to work hand in hand with the eight planned innovative hubs across Nigeria to provide acceleration, as well as incubation of the creative and technology industries. The initiative is a ‘Training to Jobs’ kind with a fundamental aim of ensuring that its participants will be capable of engaging in the marketplace, working in outsourcing capacity as employees, freelancers, and entrepreneurs.
- N-Power Build
N-Power Build is described as an accelerated training and certification program with a target of training and engaging a total of 75,000 young unemployed citizens of Nigeria towards building a crop of competent and skilled workforce. This workforce is expected to comprise artisans, technicians, and service professionals.
Preliminary Preparations Before Applying For N-Power
Interested candidates for the N-Power scheme must get prepared before going to apply on the portal. For one, an intending enrollee must have accurate details of his or her Bank Verification Number (BVN), or better still, it can be printed out. A recent passport photograph is one of the requirements. When you have logged in to the application portal and clicked the “Apply for N-Power Volunteer Corps”, you are expected to first peruse the N-Power program’s terms and conditions and accept them. You must also pledge to provide only truthful and accurate information.
Requirements for the Application Process
- Your Bank Verification Number (print out); your name must be written exactly the same way on the application portal.
- Your recent passport photo (1MB) either PNG or JPEG.
- A functional phone number and a valid email.
- Graduates who wish to submit an application for the N-Health and N-Tech categories should include their degree certificates, as well as NYSC discharge certificates.
- People who are already employed are not eligible to apply.
- All applications must be submitted online.
- The application portal for the 2021 recruitment is npower.fmhds.gov.ng.
- Application is absolutely free, never pay someone to assist you in applying on the N-Power portal.
Steps To Apply For N-Power Recruitment
- Visit the approved N-Power recruitment portal at npower.fmhds.gov.ng.
- On the portal, sign-up for a profile and create your log-in details.
- Applicant’s valid contact info such as phone number and email should be imputed in the right boxes.
- Confirm your email by going to your inbox to check if any mail dropped from N-Power App Portal. If the mail is not in your inbox, all the other folders, including Spam, should be checked and when you get it, click on the provided link to get your email confirmed.
- Once you have confirmed your email, go back to the portal and enter your accurate 11-digit BVN. If your Bank Verification Number is inaccurate, you will be denied access to the next interface; the ensuing interface only opens for applicants who have keyed in their BVN correctly.
- Your date of birth should be filled in this order (dd/mm/yy).
- For your contact page and biodata, your names should be filled in identical terms to what is on your BVN – surname, first name, middle name.
- Navigate to the “Education and Program Section” where you will be required to indicate whether you are educated or not and select your preferred program based on your level of education.
- Graduates are required to upload all relevant documents like their degree and NYSC certificates.
- The only approved identity cards are the ones issued by the Federal Government of Nigeria like NIMC National ID Card, valid International Passport, Permanent Voter’s Card, and valid Driver’s License. Your passport photo should be uploaded in either PNG or Jpeg.
- All the imputed information should be properly reviewed before the final submission. N-Power will send you a unique id number upon submission; this number should be kept safely for future use.
- Note; before any applicant completes the application process, they will be assessed on their knowledge of grammar and general knowledge. They will also field questions for N-Power VAIDS and basic numerical concepts.
A Scrutiny of How The Program Has Been Running For the Past Four Years
As earlier mentioned, the scheme was launched on the 8th of June 2016 and has enrolled three different batches from 2016 to 2020. Below is how the program has been running from batch to batch.
Batch A
Registration for the first batch of N-Power commenced immediately after its launch on the 12th of June 2016, At the end of an online assessment exercise, 200,000 youths out of 350, 000 who participated were successful. The results which were released on the 21st of November 2016 saw a total of 150,000 beneficiaries selected under the N-Teach category, 20,000 under N-Health, and the remaining 30,000 under N-Agro.
The beneficiaries commenced work in their respective locations of primary assignment on the 1st of December 2016. Batch A spent a total of 43 months on the scheme instead of the stipulated 24 months and was disengaged on the 30th of June 2020 as announced by Sadiya Umar Farouq – the Nigerian minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management, and Social Development.
Batch B
Online enrolment for the Batch B group of the N-Power scheme commenced on the 13th of June 2017. At the end of the enrolment exercise, 2,543,079 applications were collected but only 2,258,266 applicants scaled through the Bank Verification Number (BVN) validation stage. 1,746,454 applicants participated in the online assessment test for selection into N-Health, N-Teach, N-Tax, and N-Agro and 300,000 emerged successfully. Physical verifications were conducted for the successful people in the 744 LGAs in the country from the 4th of December 2017 to the 14th of December 2017. They commenced work on the 1st of August 2018 to be disengaged on the 31st of July 2020.
Batch C
Batch C is the most recent batch so far in the N-Power scheme. Online enrolment for the Batch C beneficiaries started on the 26th of June 2020 with over a million applications received within hours and 3 million within seven days.
Salary Beneficiaries of N-Power Are Entitled to
For working under the N-Power scheme, beneficiaries are entitled to monthly remuneration for two years, though the first batch lasted 43 months. Below is a breakdown of their receivables on a monthly basis:
| Serial No | Program | Monthly Payment |
| 1. | N-Power Agro Program | N25,000 to N30,000 |
| 2. | N-Power build Program | N27,000 to N30,000 |
| 3. | N-Power Education Program | N10,000 to N30,000 |
| 4. | N-Power Creative Program | N10,000 to N30,000 |
| 5. | N-Power Health Program | N30, 000 to N40,000 |
| 6. | N-Power Teach Program | N28, 000 to N30,000 |
| 7. | N-Power Tech (hardware) Program | N20, 000 to N40,000 |
| 8. | N-Power Tech (Software) Program | N20, 000 to N40,000 |
FAQs
- How can one apply for N-Power jobs in Nigeria?
All applications are submitted online at npower.fmhds.gov.ng which is their official portal for recruitment.
- Who is eligible for enrolment into the N-Power Scheme?
All Nigerians, both graduates, and non-graduates between 18 and 35 years of age can apply for the program.
- Are people living with disabilities eligible for enrolment?
Yes, as long as you are a citizen of Nigeria, you can be selected despite any disability.
- What type of qualifications are considered for graduates level under N-Power?
Graduates of polytechnics, colleges of education, and universities from NUC accredited institutions of learning are eligible to enroll.
- Can an Employee of another organization or company apply for an N-Power job?
The answer to this question is an unequivocal no. Employees of other organizations who went ahead and submitted applications will be fished out through their Bank Verification Number. Thus, people that are already employed in government agencies and private firms do not need to apply.
- Why are Employees of other companies not accepted?
Accepting people who are already working will negate the aims and objective of setting up the N-Power scheme (the program targets the teeming unemployed youths in Nigeria)
- What amount is an applicant expected to provide for the online registration?
Registration for the N-power scheme is free of charge, never let anyone deceive you into spending money.