The National Directorate of Employment (NDE), in collaboration with the World Bank, has paid three month stipends to 1,709 interns under the Youth Employment and Social Support Operation (YESSO) programme of the agency.
Mr Lawan Yaya, NDE Bauchi State Coordinator, who told News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Bauchi on Wednesday, that the gesture was done in order to lessen the hardship encountered by the beneficiaries as a result of the dreaded Coronavirus in the state.
Yaya said that the Director-General of NDE, Mr Nasiru Argungu, despite the lockdown in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), has been working to ensure that all the beneficiaries received their stipends.
He said that each of the beneficiaries was given N7,500 per month for the period of three months.
“Despite the lockdown in the FCT, the Director-General of NDE, Dr Nasir Argungu is working from home round the clock to ensure that the interns and apprentices of YESSO received their stipends.
“Not fewer than one thousand, seven hundred and nine (1,709) interns received their stipends in Bauchi state.
“Each of the interns were given seven thousand five hundred naira per month and they were paid for the period of three months.
“This gesture by the D-G was done in order to reduce the hardship encountered by the interns following dreaded Coronavirus in the country, that is why we called it COVID-19 stipends,” Yaya said.
Yaya said the interns were greatly complying with social distancing, making use of face masks, frequent hand washing with the use of hand sanitizers as well as other precautionary measures as advised by medical experts in the course of their internship programme.
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