The Bank of Industry on Wednesday said it had selected 1,000 members of the National Youth Service Corps for the Graduate Entrepreneurship Fund scheme.
It said a total of 3,100 had submitted applications for the scheme. The Managing Director, BoI, Mr. Rasheed Olaoluwa, stated this at the launch of the GEF training for corps members
He said the bank, in collaboration with the directorate of the National Youth Service Corps, decided to commence the initiative in order to encourage graduates of tertiary institutions in Nigeria to become employers of labour rather than job seekers.
The scheme, he added, would also ensure the viability and sustainability of the businesses of young graduates as well as address the entrepreneurship gap of young NYSC members.
He said the bank would take the 1,000 NYSC members through an intensive entrepreneurship capacity building programme, on how to run a profitable business and the basic financial record keeping.
The Bol managing director, who was represented by the Regional Head, North Central, Mr. Jack Kings, said at the end of the exercise, the corps members would be able to access a loan of between N500, 000 and N2m.
The loan facility, according to him, will be administered at a single-digit interest rate of nine per cent per annum repayable between three and five years.
In ensuring the sustainability of the businesses that will be supported under the GEF programme, he noted that a support system had been put in place.
Also speaking at the event, the Director-General, NYSC, Brig-Gen Johnson Olawumi, commended the bank for the partnership, adding that the move was consistent with the vision of the NYSC Skill Acquisition and Entrepreneurship Development Scheme.
He said, "The intention of the GEF is in line with the overall mandate of the NYSC SAED programme, which centers on equipping corps members with basic entrepreneurship skills to make them self-reliant and employers of labour.
"I wish to observe that over 500,000 corps members have been trained since the inception of the SAED programme in 2012 and none of them had the opportunity being presented by this collaboration with the Bol to access desired funds.
Olawumi said, "With the level of enthusiasm and interest demonstrated by the past corps members in the NYSC SAED initiative, managers of the scheme had always been faced with challenges posed in sourcing for start-up capital for the corps members' business proposal. This is why the intervention of the Bol in funding the GEF programme is a welcome development."
He expressed optimism that the corps members would take advantage of the GEF in enrolling for subsequent training, adding that if other financial institutions could support the scheme, the issue of start-up capital would soon become a thing of the past.
Source: The Punch
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