Minister of Finance, Kemi Adeosun has said the Federal Government has no plans to scrap the Youth With Innovation Entrepreneurship program (Youwin).

Adeosun stated this during her first Facebook live session filmed at the headquarters of the Ministry of Finance.

The minister said the program was being reviewed to meet the economic agenda of the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari.

She said the review will allow the Federal Government incorporate the scheme into the country’s higher institutions.

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She said, “The Buhari administration has no plans to scrap it (YouWin).The Federal Government has reviewed the scheme and repositioned it as YouWiN!Connect, which focuses on continuous enterprise education and skills building.

“As part of the restructuring, YouWiN!Connect now publishes weekly editorials in four national newspapers. The principles of YouWiN!Connect would be incorporated into university curricula across Nigeria.”

She added that the government was putting in place measures to diversify the economy and stop the reliance in fuel.

She said “The good news is that we are working through the issues one by one, and trying to ensure that as we rebuild the economy, we get away from the boom and bust cycle of the past — we want to build an economy where, whether oil price is high or low, there’s sustainable growth for Nigeria and for Nigerians.”

She said the economy slipped into recession because the country had depended heavily on oil revenue for survival.

“We got into recession because, for the last ten years, even when the oil price was extremely high, and we were borrowing, our reserves were decreasing. We didn’t have enough of a productive economy.

“The only real thing that was happening and creating growth was the oil price, and as soon as the oil price went down, growth disappeared. What we are trying to do now is to reset the economy, so that we are not so dependent on oil,” she added.