Central Bank Launches Youth Innovative Entrepreneurship Program.

Earlier this year I told you guys that the Central Bank would be coming up with a program to reduce unemployment and to create more jobs and I also warned you guys that you may have to submit some original documents of your credentials well,  in line with my earlier news,  the central Bank have just launched the  Youth Innovative Entrepreneurship Development Programme (YIEDP) in partnership with Heritage bank. 

 The programme is aimed at harnessing the latent entrepreneurial spirit in the teeming youth by providing them timely and affordable loans to implement their business ideas. It further provides a sustainable mechanism to stimulate employment, contribute to the nation’s non-oil Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and address the challenge of youth restiveness.
The following youth, aged 18 – 35, are eligible under this scheme:

I. Serving National Youth Corps members 
II. Non-NYSC members (not more than five years post National Youth Service)

Qualified Business Sectors:
1. Agro - Allied
2. Food Processing / Preservation
3. Arts & Crafts
4. Manufacturing / Cottage Industry
5. Information & Communication Technology (ICT)
6. Construction Support
7. Power & Energy
8. Education & Financial Inclusion
9. Film & Photography
10. Automobile
11. Others

Transaction Dynamics:
• Eligible youth can apply for the loan through this portalhttp://www.yiedp-hbng.com/ using his/her NYSC State Code

• Applications can be made as an individual or as a group of 3-5 applicants with similar business interests
• A single applicant can access up to a facility limit of N3million while group projects jointly owned by 3-5 qualified beneficiaries can access up to a facility limit of N10million

• Applicants can also track application status via the same portal
• Applications will be processed centrally from the Head Office Annex
• Security: Graduate entrepreneurs will use their tertiary institution(s) certificate(s) and their NYSC discharge certificate. Serving Corp members will pledge their NYSC discharge certificate and their tertiary institution(s) certificates(s). Also, legal ownership of assets financed by the bank and 3rd party guarantors will be requested as additional collateral from all entrepreneurs

• Successful candidates will be assigned to ECs close to the intended business locations.
click here to visit the official site and get more info on this program.

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BOI launches a graduate entrepreneurs investment program to provide employment.

Worried by the rising number of unemployed youths across the country, the Bank of Industry (BoI) has expressed its desire to reduce the rate to single digit.
Acting Managing Director of BoI, Mr. Waheed Olagunju, stated this in Lagos yesterday at the Youth Entrepreneurship Support (YES) programme Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signing ceremony with entrepreneurship capacity building facilitators in Lagos yesterday.
Olagunju said BoI was determined to reduce the 25 per cent unemployment rate to single digit, adding that youths account for more than 60 per cent of the country’s population figure, a development he said remained unacceptable to the bank.
The acting MD said for every N1 billion invested in Micro Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs), about 4,500 jobs were being created.
And to achieve the target of massive job creation, he said the Federal Government has expressed its willingness to support every initiative of the bank targeted at reducing the number of unemployed youths in the country.
He explained that the YES-Programme is another initiative of BoI designed to address youth unemployment in Nigeria with the first being the Graduate Entrepreneurship Fund (GEF) programme organised for serving members of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) launched in October 2015.
“The YES-Programme entails building the capacity of the youths by equipping them with the requisite entrepreneurial knowledge and skills as well as funding their business plans, which would enable them to be self-employed and manage their businesses,” he said.
According to him, participants would be drawn from young aspiring entrepreneurs between the ages of 18 and 35 years, with innovative ideas who must have a minimum educational qualification of an Ordinary National Diploma (OND) or its equivalent.
He explained that 10,000 online applications would be solicited nationwide, out of which 2,000 would be selected for the online component of the YES-Programme.
“Applicants will register online and will be expected to provide accurate answers to questions. Such answers count towards determining the suitability of the applicants for the training programme. Only the top 1,200 online participants will qualify for the in-class training programme annually.
“The in-class training will be delivered by BoI accredited partner training institutions and shall take place on a bi-annual basis at selected centres across the six geo-political zones of the country, including Lagos and Abuja. Consequently, 600 participants shall be trained at the designated locations twice in a year,” he stated.
On the components of YES, he said the programme involves eight weeks extensive online entrepreneurship and business management training, which has the ability to test participants’ understanding and track their progress.
Others are the Business Idea (value proposition and competition analysis), Business Model (how will the business make money), Sales and Marketing, Running a Successful Business (ethics, compliance, operations), Financial Plan.
The initiative, he said, will also involve technical skill training in partnership with the various technical training and vocational institutions in the country while financing of the businesses will be borne by BoI under its Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) cluster initiative in consonance with the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa’s Commodity-based Industrialisation Strategy.

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