Published June 21, 2019
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.”
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File copy. NYSC
Olaleye Aluko, Abuja
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.
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.
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.