A total of 310 youths, including members
of the National Youth Service Corps, on Thursday received N930m from
the Central Bank of Nigeria to establish profitable ventures in
different sectors of the economy.
Each of the youth, who emerged through a
rigorous competitive process, received N3m under the Youth
Entrepreneurial Development Programme. The first set of the loans was
disbursed through Heritage Bank.
Speaking at the disbursement ceremony,
the Governor, CBN, Mr. Godwin Emefiele, said the YEDP was introduced in
March 2016 by the apex bank as part of efforts to reduce the nation’s
un-employment rate, which had increased to 13.3 per cent in the second
quarter.
Emefiele, who was represented by the
Deputy Governor, Corporate Services, Alhaji Suleiman Barau, said the
programme was to ensure that the creative energies of the over 64
million Nigerian youths were harnessed to stimulate growth, address
restiveness and promote economic development.
He said, “To realise this objective, the
bank, in partnership with the National Youth Service Corps and Heritage
Bank, began the pilot seven months ago to inspire and harvest the
entrepreneurial abilities of Nigerian youths towards creating over one
million direct jobs by 2020.
“The programme is open to youths of
between 18 and 35 years who are serving corps members, graduates or
artisans. All youths in this category are eligible to apply and will be
pre-qualified for training on entrepreneurship before they can access
credit lines of up to N3m at a single digit interest rate.
“The programme is premised on the
provision of timely and affordable credit to identified youth
entrepreneurs with expected multiplier effects on job creation and
economic growth.”
He added, “To overcome the bottleneck of
collateral requirements for loans and ease access to finance, their
academic and the NYSC certificates, third-party guarantees and movable
assets are allowed as acceptable collateral under the programme.
“The programme is a revolving fund with a
target to create more than one million direct jobs. We encourage all
Nigerian youths that are interested in being their own bosses to apply
online through the participating banks.”
Emefiele said the central bank had
commenced the YEDP with other Deposit Money Banks such as Sterling Bank
Plc and Fidelity Bank Plc, adding that discussions were ongoing with
other banks to open their portals for the programme in order to have a
wider outreach and fund more small businesses.
The Managing Director, Heritage Bank,
Mr. IfieSekibo, said the bank had received more than 7,000 applications
for the second batch of the programme, adding that the lender would soon
be meeting with the CBN to expand the reach of the programme.
Sekibo, who was represented by the
Executive Director, Lagos & Southwest, Corporate Banking, Heritage
Bank, Mrs. Mary Akpobome, gave an assurance that some issues raised by
some of the beneficiaries would be addressed.
The Director-General, NYSC, Brig.-Gen.
SuleKazaure, encouraged the beneficiaries to remain focused and ensure
that the loans were repaid to make for the extension of similar
facilities to other corps members.
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