The Federal Government has paid 500,000 graduates who are engaged in its N-Power scheme a total of N360bn within two years.

Speaking to journalists on the sidelines of an entrepreneurship show organised by Azuatalam Better Life Foundation in Abuja on Sunday, the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Social Investment Programmes, Ismaeel Ahmed, said the payments started in 2016.

He said, “Through the N-Power programme, 500,000 graduates have been employed and are paid N30, 000 every month.

“If you calculate that for the two years that they have been there, you will understand how much we’ve invested.”

By paying 500,000 graduates N30,000 monthly for two years, the government had expended a total of N360bn.

The special assistant added, “We have given 622,000 people N5,000 each, and these are the poorest of the poor who do not have any collateral to go to the bank to collect loans.”

Ahmed said the TraderMoni scheme had also impacted millions of small businesses, as he lauded the initiative of the Azuatalam Foundation.