National Social Investment Programmes in Nigeria: A Descriptive Analysis of the Socio-Economic Contributions of N-Power Programme in Benue State

This study analysed the socio-economic contributions of N-Power programme amongst the beneficiaries of the scheme in Benue State. Prior to the introduction of N-Power programme, successive administrations in Nigeria have made concerted efforts towards improving the standard of living of the citizenry through the execution of various welfare or social intervention programmes, but not much successes were recorded. Learning from the mistakes of the past regimes, and by way of deliberate state policy, the Buhari’s government initiated a multi-pronged social investment policy, one of which is the N-power programme that came onboard in 2016, which also doubles as the subject of this study. To achieve the goal of this study, a combination of desktop research and survey design was employed. Questionnaires were administered to 390 respondents through a combination of stratified and random sampling techniques. The results of the survey were matched with that of the secondary data obtained through online websites and other related sources. The result indicated that N-Power made positive contributions to the socio-economic life of the beneficiaries in Benue State: specifically, the scheme contributed in poverty eradication, employment generation, skills acquisitions and capacity building. However, some aspect of our findings revealed that the programme has a number of challenges such as: inadequate cash support, delay in monthly cash transfer to beneficiaries, distance participants had to move to their work stations, absence of posting in N-Teach scheme, and lack of adequate working tools amongst others. To salvage this problem the paper recommended the following solutions: expansion of the scheme to cover N-Teach and other aspects, increment in the monthly cash transfer to cushion the high rate of inflation, support for the participants/beneficiaries in transportation and logistics, enrolment of more youth into the various schemes, proper monitoring and evaluation of the implementation of the schemes amongst others.