N-POWER PROGRAMME AND UNEMPLOYMENT IN AKWA IBOM STATE: A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS
Effiong, Ubong Edem
Department of Economics
University of Uyo, Uyo
Email: ubongeffiong3@gmail.com
ABSTRACT
This paper is a comparative analysis of the N-Power programme and unemployment in Akwa Ibom State. The study compares unemployment rate in the state before N-Power (2005- 2015) and during N-Power (2016 – 2018Q3). Trend analysis was adopted and the average unemployment for the two periods were compared. The average unemployment before the N-Power programme stood at 22.23% while that during N-power programme
stood at 33.45%. This shows that unemployment has still been on the increase in Akwa Ibom despite the adoption of the N-Power programme across states in the federation. To further proof this, the Student’s t-test was employed and the result shows that there is no significant difference between unemployment before N-Power and unemployment during
N-Power in Akwa Ibom State. It was therefore recommended that efforts geared towards long-term employment in the state should be adopted rather than short-term empowerment programmes. Also, beneficiaries of the N-Power should be made to stay on the programme until they find paid employment rather than laying them off after two years to join the mass unemployed paupers. Keywords: Unemployment, Skill Acquisition, N-Power, Programmes
