The Muhammadu Buhari administration,
through the Bank of Industry, on
Thursday formally launched a N10
billion Youths Entrepreneurship Support
(YES) project to empower youth with
loans to start businesses.
Speaking at the launch of the project in
Abuja, the Minister for Industry, Trade
and Investment, Okechukwu Enelamah,
said his ministry would partner all
agencies of government to create new
jobs.
He said more than 40 per cent of
Nigerian graduates had no jobs and that
an average of eight million Nigerians
entered the job market annually.
The minister said that the ‘YES’ project
of BoI was part of the Federal
Government’s youth employment
scheme, saying that about 36,000 jobs
would be created annually through ‘YES’.
He appealed to prospective beneficiaries
to repay the loans for the success and
sustenance of the project.
Waheed Olagunju, the acting Managing
Director of BoI, said that a participant
under the scheme could access up to N10
million loan with single digit interest
rate and repayable over three to five
years.
He said that an applicant must present
NYSC or higher education certificate as
collateral to qualify for the loan with two
external guarantors.

Mr. Olagunju said that the bank was partnering 11
consultants across the country for the first phase of the
project.
Afolabi Imokhuede, a Special Assistant to the Vice
President, said job creation was at the heart of the
current administration.
He said that government intended to create 3.5 million
jobs in the next three years, adding that the ‘YES’
project was one of the programmes.
Mr. Imokhuede advised participants to take the ‘YES’
seriously as online courses were now popular means
of job creation world wide.
Nasir El-Rufai, the Governor ok Kaduna State, said that
the state was partnering with BoI on job creation.
He said that the state had been able to take controlling
shares in Peugeot Automobile Nigeria with the
assistance of BoI.
(NAN)