Central Bank of Nigeria said it has set aside N2.5bn for members of the National Youth Service Corps with good business ideas to actualise their dreams.
The N2.5bn, which was set from the N220bn Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Development Fund, the bank said, would be disbursed to the corps members under the Youth Entrepreneurship Development Programme.
The CBN is targeting to create one million jobs through the YEDP, which is an initiative of the apex bank launched on March 15 this year by the governor, Mr. Godwin Emefiele.
The purpose of the programme is to address the challenges of youth unemployment in the country.
Under the YEDP, the apex bank, in collaboration with Heritage Bank Plc, will develop the entrepreneurial capacity of the youth as well as provide each of them with a maximum of N3m to operate a business.
The activities to be covered under the programme are start-ups and expansion projects in the agricultural value chain (fish farming, poultry and snail farming), cottage industry, mining and solid minerals.
Others are tourism, arts and crafts, Information and Communications Technology and any other activity that may be determined by the CBN.
Speaking during the event at the NYSC camp in Abuja on Thursday, Emefiele said the initiative would enable the CBN to conserve the huge foreign exchange, which was currently being spent to import food items.
He said each corps member was entitled to N3m, adding that their discharge certificates as well their degree certificates would be used as collateral to secure the loan.
Meanwhile,are “oyinbo” people allowed to serve?
