Incorrect bank details hamper payment for N-Power beneficiaries in Kogi State

Incorrect bank details have been identified as the major stumbling block delaying the payment of the N-Power beneficiaries in Kogi State. However most of the beneficiaries who spoke to The Guardian indicated they are yet to receive any alert three months after the programme started.

The focal person for Kogi State, Ibrahim Adoga explained that the difficulty with some of the beneficiaries were self-inflicted. He said they were mistakes made while they were filling the forms online.

He explained: “It is not entirely our duty to correct their mistakes. It is the beneficiaries’ responsibility because they are responsible for all the details they send on the website.”

He said they know the channels through which to communicate to resolve all the issues they are having currently. Adoga who is also the special adviser to Governor Yahaya Bello on Multilateral, said when they were selected, they went through stages when they were to supply their bank details, unfortunately most of them had used other people’s BVN, or bank accounts, other peoples’ addresses or date of birth.

“What we are asking the beneficiaries to do now is to ensure they return to the website and correct all these information. For those that have imputed wrong BVN they are not going to tally with their names, they should make corrections with their BVN.

“It is only when they have done that that they can get their payment. They did not send all these information through us, they sent them directly through the website of the N-Power,” he said.

He further disclosed that government is currently sending out monitoring and evaluation team to the various local governments. Adoga said they have already received the names of those who are yet to be paid from the vice President’s office in Abuja and they are sending them the information in batches after being corrected.

According to him: “The issues are basically account and BVN because as of the time they registered, they had no accounts and BVN so they just used other peoples account numbers so they are having to face these hurdles.”

The State coordinator of N-Power in the office of the focal person for Kogi State, Femi Bolaji, said the N-Power programme was officially flagged off in Kogi State on December 1st, 2016 after the selection of 200, 000 beneficiaries nationwide.

He said the beneficiaries were assessed online and all their documents submitted online.

“That brought about the need to do physical verification. After that was done we now did postings to the places of primary assignment, we posted them to ministry of Agriculture, ministry of education and the ministry of Health. So in essence we have N-Agro, N-Health and N-Teach totalling 4500.