Olusola Sunday Ajakaye
In August 2024, the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) announced the commencement of the registration for the Niger Delta Youth Internship Scheme.
The announcement ignited joy in the hearts of many youth in the region as many community youth organizations mobilized their members to register massively for the scheme.
According to information provided by the regional interventionist agency, the scheme is designed to equip 10,000 youths across the nine mandate states of the Niger Delta region with a range of skills.
The training is supposed to last for a year, and the participants are to be paid a stipend of 50,000 Naira to support them while they acquire the skill.
The online registration was scheduled from the 5th to the 31st of August 2024.
The agency provided a link https://nddc.gov.ng/ where interested youth from the region are to register. Several potential candidates complained about the difficulty in registering for the scheme.
“The first two to three weeks, we saw hell before we could eventually register; the site was always failing. Sometimes it failed to send the needed code or sent it very late.
“Some of my friends got tired and abandoned it,” a beneficiary said.
Eventually, the commission announced that a total of 3.2 million persons applied, and 10,000 had been shortlisted for the scheme.
There was no official explanation of how the shortlisted candidates were selected, and there was no physical screening to verify the credentials of the shortlisted applicants.
The commission received several accolades for the initiative, as it was expected to address a significant portion of the region’s unemployment challenges. The Niger Delta region, comprising Akwa Ibom, Bayelsa, Cross River, Delta, Edo, Imo, Ondo, Rivers, and Abia states, has long grappled with youth unemployment and underemployment despite its oil wealth.
How the 10,000 Were Actually Selected?
DNN sought to understand how the successful candidates learned they had been selected.
After investigation, DNN found out that none of the beneficiaries we interviewed received any notification or letter to that effect.
“I found out I had been picked when I received my first payment of 50,000 Naira in February 2025. I didn’t receive any mail, text, or phone call,” a beneficiary said.
A source within the system who pleaded anonymity said that many of the successful applicants were those whose names were forwarded by the executive directors and commissioners to the Community Development Unit of the NDDC, an office directly under the office of the Managing Director.
“These Commissioners and Executive Directors simply forwarded the names of the people they wanted to the Community Development Office, which is under the supervision of the Managing Director, Dr. Samuel Ogbuku,” the source alleged.
A reasonable number of those beneficiaries did not register through the site in August; their names were compiled in December 2024 and January 2025.
No Placement
A major component of the scheme is that selected beneficiaries will be placed at a designated training centre to be trained in a selected skill.
According to the information available on the official website of the commission, this was supposed to do two things: allow the trainee to gain useful skills for economic empowerment and allow the trainer to make some money from training the beneficiaries.
This journalist spoke to tens of beneficiaries across three of the nine mandate states of the Niger Delta Development Commission. Not one of those beneficiaries admitted that such placements occurred, and none knew any beneficiaries who had enjoyed such placements.
This raises the question of where the placement funds were diverted.
Payment (???)
On the 6th of February 2025, the commission announced the commencement of monthly stipends of 50,000 Naira to beneficiaries.
An official statement released on the official website of the commission and signed by its Director of Corporate Affairs, Seledi Thompson-Wakama, reads https://nddc.gov.ng/
“The Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC, has commenced the placement and payment of 10,000 beneficiaries of the Youth Internship Scheme for one-year practical skills training in various organizations for sustainable youth empowerment in the Niger Delta region.
“With the successful completion of the selection of beneficiaries and their ongoing placement in organizations for practical experience, the payment of the monthly stipends has also taken effect.
“The selection process was conducted with the utmost transparency, diligence, and fairness after over 3.2 million young people registered in the database at the close of the application period.”
DNN also found out that the mode of payment was Remita, the Federal Government’s approved payment platform widely used by Ministries, Departments, and Agencies for salary and stipend disbursements.
All the beneficiaries received the payment for the first month in February 202,5 after which the payment became shrouded in secrecy.
“When the first payment was made in February, I was very happy. I joined a monthly contribution hoping to use the money to buy a washing machine for a laundry business, but I couldn’t meet up because I didn’t receive anything for another four months,” a beneficiary who identified as Kolade said.
By December 2025, only three months had been paid.
“We begged, we called their numbers, we descended on their social media handles, but there was no official response as regards why the payment was delayed and why, even when they pay us, once in a while some persons will get, and some persons will not get,” he added.
As of the end of January 2026, some beneficiaries have received five months of payment, while others have received only three months.
On February 12, Anthony Kone wrote in the comments section of the verified Facebook page of the commission:
“Our monthly stipend pls”
On the 9th of February, Sema Akpan wrote:
“Nonsense, where is our internship program stipend?”
Another beneficiary, Peple Nengi, lamented not receiving payment made in January and not getting any response despite frequent complaints:
“The youth internship scheme stipend that was paid on the 22nd (of January), I didn’t receive mine
Please please please
The person in charge of media, I know u have been seeing this information because you also have a role to play in all this.
NDDC email & contact number isn’t going through, so it’s up to u to easily convey the information to those in charge of the program
Thanks”
Awards
Almost every member of the current board of the commission had earn several awards as a result of the scheme.
The Managing Director of the commission Samuel Ogbuku has earned several international and national awards as a result of this scheme and several other schemes that has gone almost the same way.
Unanswered Accountability Questions
The manner in which the NDDC Youth Internship Scheme was carried out has raised several accountability questions, not only about the scheme but also about other empowerment schemes initiated by the commission. The NDDC, established in 2000 to facilitate the rapid, even, and sustainable development of the Niger Delta region, has in the past faced public scrutiny over project execution and financial management.
How much exactly was budgeted for the scheme?
Why has the payment been without transparency?
Why has this been a pattern of several NDDC empowerment programmes?
The NDDC recently announced the commencement of the Skill Development Training and Empowerment Programme. A frustrated youth said:
“As you are about to apply, think about the first internship program, how it was later narrowed to man knows man.
Applying for anything online is like talking about heaven unless you have someone in the APC or NDDC.”
A student union leader from an Ijaw community in Ese-Odo Local Government Area in Ondo State, Goodnews Ododumu, while speaking to this reporter, commended the NDDC for the “lofty” initiative but described the implementation as not “commendable enough”.
