BoI to train 3,000 NYSC members annually on entrepreneurship skills

The Bank of Industry (BoI) says it will train 3,000 National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) members on entrepreneurship skills annually under the Graduate Entrepreneurship Fund (GEF) programme.

Mr Kayode Pitan, the Managing Director of BOI, made this known at the opening of the GEF training on Monday in Katsina.

Pitan said that the programmme was aimed at empowering and encouraging serving corps members to become employers of labour rather than job seekers.

He said 1,000 graduates had been shortlisted for this year’s training programme, which would take place in seven states of the federation.

Pitan, who was represented by the Northwest Regional Manager of the bank, Alhaji Sanusi Gidado, said the states included Abia, Delta, Osun, Lagos, FCT, Abuja, Plateau and Katsina.

Pitan reiterated that interest-free loans were being given to the beneficiaries after training to encourage more to participate.

The NYSC Director-General, Brig.-Gen. Sule Zakari Kazaure, said that about one million corps members had so far been trained on various skills under the Skill Acquisition and Entrepreneurship Development (SAED) programme.

Kazaure said that the skills were on agro-allied, cosmetology, automobile, ICT, power and energy, film and photography, among others.

He revealed that efforts were ongoing to improve on the training, supervision, and other implementation procedures to achieve the set objective.

The D-G also urged the BOI to expedite action in the processing of loan requests after training.

The Katsina State Coordinator of NYSC, Hajiya Ramatu Sanda urged beneficiaries to set up their businesses in Katsina because the government would provide the necessary assistance for their businesses to grow.