The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has promised to offer loans on a seven-year tenor to the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) members for establishment of small and medium scale enterprises.
The Central Bank Governor, Godwin Emefiele, stated this while receiving the Director-General of the NYSC, Brig. Shuaibu Ibrahim, in his office in Abuja.
Emefiele noted that the loan disbursement was borne out of the need to curb the rate of unemployment in the country.
He advised corps members to attend the bank’s entrepreneurship training centres for skills acquisitions in various vocational areas for economic survival after passing out from the scheme.
The CBN Governor assured that the loans would be disbursed to the corps members to provide the needed support to the rent of business offices or workshop and also to acquiring working tools.
“The Central Bank of Nigeria has expressed willingness to provide further opportunities of self-employment for corps members through its skill acquisition training. 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.”
The CBN Governor said an entrepreneurship programme “Youth Entrepreneurship Development Program (YEDP)” was launched by the bank in 2016, and has served as a propelling platform to the empowerment of youth corps members and other youths across the country for the purpose of wealth creation and self-employment.
Emefiele promised that the CBN National Microfinance Bank would support corps members interested in financing their business.
In his response, Brig. Shuaibu Ibrahim of the NYSC who said the visit was intended to enhance more robust collaborations with the Central Bank in the area of empowering youth corps entrepreneurs solicited the apex bank’s support in providing more skills acquisitions centres across all zones and modern equipment for the NYSC farms located in various parts of the country.
