Minister calls on youths to access N75bn intervention fund

Mr Olamilekan Adegbite, the Minister of Mines and Steel, Development has called on youths to take advantage of the N75 billion Youth Investment Fund approved by the Federal Government.

Adegbite made the call in a statement by his Special Assistant on Media, Mr Ayodeji Adeyemi on Monday in Abuja, during a series of town hall meetings held with youths in three senatorial districts in Ogun at the weekend.

He said that the fund was set aside by the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari to nurture and develop entrepreneurship spirit among youths.

Adegbite said that Mr President was interested in nurturing entrepreneurship spirit amongst the youths viewing them as the leaders of tomorrow.

He said that the administration had designed lots of programmes aimed at helping the youths and giving them a good livelihood.

“President Buhari’s administration has set aside N75 billion funds, which is meant to assist youths who have good business ideas but no capital to back such ideas up.

“I want to encourage everyone here who has a good idea to apply for the funds. You can get more details if you go to the website of the Ministry of Youths and Sport Development,” he said.

He said that a minimum of N25 billion had been set aside for each year for the next three years making a total of N75 billion.

“Indeed, the president considers Nigerian Youths as resource to be harnessed and not a problem which is the reason for the initiation of the fund.

“This programme joins a few of other youth- oriented programmes by president Buhari to combat youth unemployment with the objective of driving innovation among youths.”

The loan is aimed to fund about 500, 000 youths from 2020 to 2023.

It has an approval range of between N250, 000 and N50 million with a spread across group and individual applications.

It was set as a working capital as one year term loan set at three years with a single-digit interest rate of five per cent.

The Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning (MFBNP) and the CBN will provide the financing to kick-start the fund disbursement through various channels.

The channels include micro credit organisations across the country under the CBN supported by Bank of Industry (BoI), Fintech organisations and venture capital organisations registered with the CBN.

Adegbite also called on the youths to patronise local products instead of foreign ones, noting that such would create more employment.

“If you know any young Nigerian who makes clothes we should all patronise them, instead of buying imported designer clothes.

“We should equally buy shoes made by Nigerians instead of foreign ones. That’s the only way we can grow our economy and create jobs.”

Speaking on the mining sector, the minister noted that the sector needed huge funds for its exploration project.

“Our focus is now on de-risking the sector by providing up-to-date and comprehensive data on mineral occurrences in Nigeria to woo more investors and create friendly environment through favourable incentives.

According to him, the ongoing National Integrated Mineral Exploration Project (NIMEP) is government’s rapid response to the dearth of investible geoscience data.