The Central Bank of Nigeria has said it will offer loans to National Youth Service Corps members to start small and medium scale enterprises, which they will repay in seven years.
The CBN Governor, Dr Godwin Emefiele, who stated this in Abuja while receiving the NYSC Director-General, Brig. Gen. Shuaibu Ibrahim, in his office, noted that the loan was conceived out of the need to reduce unemployment rate in the country.
Emefiele added that the NYSC members should attend the bank’s entrepreneurship training centres “to acquire skills in various vocational areas for economic survival at the end of their national service instead of waiting for white-collar jobs.”
According to a release by the NYSC on Thursday, Emefiele added that upon completion of their training, the loans would be given to corps members to provide support for acquiring working tools and rent of business offices or workshops.
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The statement added, “The Central Bank of Nigeria has expressed willingness to provide further opportunities of self-employment for corps members through its skill acquisition training. The CBN governor explained that upon completion of training, beneficiaries would get the cumulative value which represents a loan that would be repaid within seven years with a two-year moratorium.
“He recalled that an earlier programme, the Youth Entrepreneurship Development Programme was launched by the bank in 2016 and served as a springboard for the empowerment of corps members and other youths for self-employment and wealth creation.
“Emefiele assured the NYSC DG that the CBN National Microfinance Bank would also support interested corps members in business financing. He advocated the patronage of the Nigerian textile industry, which he described, as the largest employer of labour in the country in the 1990s.”
The NYSC DG noted that the visit was to enhance more “robust collaboration with the bank in the area of empowerment of corps entrepreneurs.”
Ibrahim requested the CBN’s support for the provision of more zonal skills acquisition centres and modern equipment for the NYSC farms located in various parts of the country. [PUNCH]
