SURE-P: Association Charges FG On Recruitment

The National
Association of Persons with Disabilities has appealed to the Federal Government to recruit  outstanding 7,000 people under the Subsidy Reinvestment Programme (SURE-P) from Gombe State approved for 2013.
The Chairman of the association, Alhaji Ali Goro, made the appeal in an interview with newsmen in Gombe recently.
Goro said that the Federal Government had said that it would recruit 10,000 persons from each state in 2013, noting that only 3,000 people were recruited from the state.
Goro said that 2013 had ended but nothing had been done to recruit more people to make up for the outstanding figure.
He, however, commended the Federal Government for its effort towards empowering the vulnerable people and small-scale entrepreneurs in the country.
Goro said that out of the 3,000 recruited for the programme in 2013, 114 members of the association were among the beneficiaries.
According to him, the Federal Government also gave out N20,000 loan to 100 entrepreneurs with the aim of boosting their businesses.
“In this group, eight of our members were also among the beneficiaries.”
He, however, said that the beneficiaries complained that they had not been paid their allowances for three months without any explanations.
He also appealed to the relevant authorities to speed up the payment of their allowances and to consider the members at all times in its employment programmes.
When contacted on the issues, Alhaji Mairiga Madudi, the Vice Chairman, SURE-P in Gombe State and Coordinator, National Directorate of Employment (NDE) in the state, said that the programme was working on the allowances for October, November and December.
According to him, the delay was caused by the process of changing accounts from UBA to First Bank as directed by government.
He said the programme’s headquarters would process the payment according to previous schedules and effect the change in bank this month, to avoid further delay.
He said that the recruitment of the outstanding 7,000 people would be effected when approval was received from the headquarters.