Only A'Ibom Youths On Govt Portal Will Get N50,000 Grant, Jobs - AKSG

 

- As Gov Eno Launches Prog, Oct 21

Henry Nkom (The Eyes Portal Newspapers)

As Governor Umo Bassey Eno launches the Akwa Ibom state youth employment portal, on Monday, October 21, 2024, which is part of the promise he made to youths for not joining in the August hunger protest,  the Senior Special Assistant to the Governor on ICT, Dr. Frank Ekpenyong has said that the employment Portal will be the only means by which the government will profile and pay a grant of N50,000 each to five thousand beneficiaries from the thirty- one local government areas of the state

Addressing journalists on Wednesday during a pre- launch media engagement held at Government House on Wednesday, Ekpenyong noted that the portal, which web address is employment.akwaibom state government.ng will become the official site where unemployed and under-emoloyed citizens can log in to create an account that would lead an employer to them or they could possibly find an opportunity and apply

Ekpenyong added that the portal will put an end to fears held in certain quarters that except a person knows an influential citizen of the state, he or she could never get a state government job or any of the lucrative jobs in the oil sector 

Urging Akwa Ibom youths that are either unemployed or under- employed to take advantage of the opportunities offered by the portal, Ekpenyong noted however that it will only go live and ready to receive applications after the launch by the Governor

Explaining that the portal is managed by the  the ICT department at the Governor's office and the Ministry of Labor and Manpower Planning

Apart from monitoring activities to make sure the portal is functioning well and ensuring  that technical service are efficient, the SSA noted that the Ministry of Labour and Manpower Planning plays the major role of helping both employers and employees who decide to use the portal

" Part of what this portal seeks to accomplish is that, should the government give a construction firm a job for instance, it could approach the Ministry of Labour and Manpower Planning where the designated staff will help it get on the portal from where it can now look at the competencies of the people it needs and then in a transparent manner people are selected and invited to be interviewed. Also, if the Head of the Civil Service requires one thousand workers, he goes to this staff at the Ministry who will now help him get on people's profile for a fair selection process" the SSA stated

Apart from the benefit the employer gets to make choices of whom to employ from the portal, Ekpenyong added that an applicant could also go to the portal and look out for opportunities that he or she could explore

Emphasizing that only indigenes of the state who currently reside in Akwa Ibom state will be guaranteed placement for jobs and grants on the portal, the SSA listed the ownership of NIN, voter's card, BVN, certificate of origin , functional email, functional bank account as prerequisites, stating that " indigenes of the state whose voters card are valid but was issued in another state and those living outside the state will be considered eventually"

The SSA said the information regarding the status of an indigene or otherwise of any applicant is critical to the work of job creation and payment of grants on the portal because as a digital process people who are not from the state may attempt to compromise the process by applying

This is why, according to him, there is a process to post the NIN and the snap a current picture of the applicant immediately, so that at the back end it will be possible to compare the live picture and what is on the NIN to ensure there is a similarity

The NIN, BVN, voters card and certificate of origin, he noted will be compared for proper verification, saying the portal at this point could not depend on NIN alone since it was possible for people to have made mistakes on their true local government of origin  at the time of registering for NIN.

Ekpenyong said to avoid errors in the process, the applicants will be physically verified explaining that such  verification could not be done digitally

Warning against poor imputing of records and the potential of being disqualified as a result, he revealed that the system has been configured to capture educational qualifications, skills, job experience, kind of job an applicant requires, pay expectations among others.

As a guide for applicants, Ekpenyong said every applicant will have a unique profile number upon creating an account and would be led  to knowing the progress in filling out the forms through a profile completion score which gives 20% for any aspect completed and this happens until the 100% mark is achieved.

The SSA further explained that in the configuration of the portal, the physically challenged citizens have been considered, advising applicants to state the kind of physical challenge they have so they could be assisted in the application process.

Not foreseeing the possibility of duplicity in employment or benefitting from grants via the portal, he said that every applicant has one profile linked by all his documents and once he has been invited for a job, such person will have to accept ii, accept to attend the interview and when he eventually gets the job, the system will also be aware and records kept

However, the SSA maintained that one person could apply for several jobs on the portal depending on his or her skill sets. The only exception,  he noted is that no one applicant will be able to access two government grants at the same time saying " If you already get on the N50,000 grant , you couldn't possibly go for the Ibom LED/ DASAC training. But somebody who gets a government grant can still work in the private sector"

Ekpenyong said that using different payment operators, government grants such as the N50,000 for five thousand youths will be paid digitally by the Ministry of Labour and Manpower Planning,  reiterating that the employment Portal pays only government grants and not those of the private sector.

Employers who have training component like the DASAC he noted will be assisted by the portal to verify the attendance of those on the programme before they can get any payments.

Allaying fears that scammers may break into the portal and use the information of applicants for devious purposes, the SSA said every government website has a theme and flavour and this particular portal has been fully secured.

He noted that the back end of the portal has been fully protected with state of the art facilities to make sure data is fully protected

Speaking earlier, the Chief Press Secretary to the Governor, Mr. Ekerette Udoh  thanked the media for properly interpreting the mood of state since the unfortunate demise of the first lady, Mrs Patience Umo Eno, saying that majority of the media practitioners have respected the privacy requested by the Governor and his family.

He maintained that as the Governor said during a broadcast recently, the mechanics of government was running seamlessly.

Udoh said to match his promise to the youths of the state with action, the Governor will launch the Arise Employment Portal on Monday, October, 21

Also speaking, the Media Consultant to the Governor, Hon Aniekan Umanah said the portal is one of Governor Umo Eno's commitment to the improvement of the lives of citizens

He said that with the employment portal in place, getting job in the state has moved from man know man to who knows what.

Umanah explained that Governor Umo Eno's commitment to payment of salaries, pensions and gratuities and other welfare activities reflected in the action of the people at the just concluded local government election which the PDP won overwhelmingly.

Also present at the event were the SSA to the Governor on Research and Documentation, Dr. Essien Ndueso and other media aides of the Governor

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