The Federal Government, Sunday, said it has begun partial payment of the N20,000 monthly stipend to beneficiaries of the 774,000 Special Public Works programme.

Minister of State, Labour and Employment, Festus Keyamo (SAN), made the disclosure in a statement to clarify the Federal Government’s position in relation to delay in payment of stipends to the workers.

Starnews Nigeria reports that Keyamo stated in the statement below:

(1) After the release of some of the funds by the Ministry of Finance for the payment of SPW stipends, I directed a rigorous scrutiny of the accounts of the participants before payments

(2) We discovered instances of accounts not matching BVNs, multiple accounts bearing a single BVN, non-existent BVNs, etc.

(3) Because of our determination to eliminate fraud, I further directed the NDE to write to the banks to clean up these anomalies b4 commencing payments

(4) So far, only ACCESS Bank has responded with accounts verified for payments and the NDE has today commenced payments of those accounts with ACCESS Bank

(5) We await the responses of ZENITH, UBA, FCMB, FIDELITY, HERITAGE & Yobe Micro-Finance Banks to clean up the anomalies

(6) Our determination to ensure those selected for this programme get paid to assist them in these tough times is also matched by our determination to ensure that the programme does not spiral into a vehicle for fraud; not under the watch of Mr. President; not under my watch.