The Bank of Industry has officially commenced a N10 billion Youth Entrepreneurship Support (YES) project in a bid to furnish Nigerian youths with loans to start businesses.
The initiative which is in collaboration with the Muhammadu Buhari-led administration, was launched in Abuja on Thursday.
At the launch, the acting Managing Director of BoI, Waheed Olagunju, said the beneficiaries of the scheme could get up to N10 million loan with single digit interest rate which would be paid back over 3- 5 years.
He also stated that to qualify for the scheme, NYSC or higher education certificate as well as two external guarantors are to be presented to the BoI.
Waheed further revealed that the BoI was in partnership with 11 consultants across the nation for the first phase of the project.
The Minister for Industry, Trade and Investment, Okechukwu Enelamah revealed that the ministry would work with all agencies in government to create new jobs while stating that over 40 per cent of Nigerian graduates are jobless and that an average of eight million Nigerians joined the job market yearly.
The minister revealed that the YES initiative was part of the government’s plan to create employment stressing that the project would create about 36,000 jobs annually.
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