A year after undergoing training by the National Population Commission (NPC), some of the facilitators trained by the commission in Benin are yet to receive payment.
The NPC had planned to conduct a national population census in 2023, 17 years after the last one, which was conducted in 2006. In preparation for the 2023 census, the commission trained 62,000 facilitators across the country.
These facilitators would have trained 850,000 supervisors and ad-hoc staff to conduct the census if it were not postponed by Muhammadu Buhari before he left office in April 2023.
The facilitators were promised a stipend of N140,000 upon the completion of their training, but EQToday learned that some of them have yet to receive their payment.
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“We were trained as facilitators, and our job was to train those who would go out to the field to conduct the census. We were divided into different classes, and we were over 50 in my class. Some have received the payment, while others, like me, have not been paid. I know of four others in my class who have not been paid. We were there from the beginning to the end and never missed a day,” Osaze (not real name), one of the facilitators owed by the commission, told EQToday.
“When we informed the NPC about this, we were informed it was not intentional and assured that we would be paid. I also wrote a letter to the National Population Commission Office here in Benin, and they gave the same response, but nothing has been done about it since then.”
Osunde Jacob, another facilitator, told EQToday that he had left it to God.
“They keep telling us they will pay, but they haven’t done so. I have left it to God. I believe God is on top of it,” Jacob lamented.
EQToday emailed the NPC for comments on Wednesday, but they have not responded.
The post One Year After National Census Training, NPC Yet to Pay Some Facilitators Their Stipends appeared first on Foundation For Investigative Journalism.