The Federal Government on Thursday said massive irregularities by some participants of the 774.000 programme was the reason payment of stipends was a delay.
This was according to the National Directorate of Employment (NDE), an agency responsible for implementing the programme in Nigeria.
According to a statement signed by Deputy Director and Head, Information and Public Relations of the Directorate, Edmund Onwuliri said Government is working assiduously to resolve the discrepancies and pay those affected.
Mr Onwuliri further disclosed that as of today, more than 90 per cent of the beneficiaries have been paid, adding that those remaining would be pay as soon as the government and the designated banks sort out the differences in the documents submitted.
He also advised participants who are yet to receive their stipends to approach the branches of their respective banks where their accounts were open for further action.
“The attention of the National Directorate of Employment has been drawn to some reports in the media regarding the slow pace or non-payment of stipends to participants of the Extended Special Public Works (ESPW) Programme.
“To this end, it has become very necessary to reiterate that the Federal Government is working assiduously towards ensuring that all registered and duly verified participants in the programme receive their payments.
“For the avoidance of doubt, available statistics indicate that much of the delay in payment of stipends to the participants has been occasioned by massive irregularities discovered by the banks in the personal data submitted by participants.
“For instance, many participants across the country had provided personal data that are at variance with their Bank Verification Numbers (BVN) among other irregularities.
“This development if unchecked would have resulted in the payment of persons other than the actual participants. The designated banks have spent a lot of time and effort at rectifying such anomalies which consequently has slowed down the pace of payment.
“However, following recent and ongoing consultations between the Federal Government and the designated banks across the country, the pace of payment has significantly improved in the last two weeks thereby bringing the percentage rate of payment to more than 93.22% of the verified participants.
“It is pertinent to state that the backlog of payment will be cleared within the shortest possible time as participants will continue to be paid their stipends as they are cleared by the banks. Therefore, the Federal Government wishes to advise all participants in the programme who are yet to receive payment to approach the branch of the bank where their accounts were opened for further actions”.
