The Bank of Industry (BoI) has formally launched a N10 billion Youths Entrepreneurship Support (YES) project to empower youths with loans to start businesses.
The Minister for Industry, Trade and Investment, Dr Okechukwu Enelamah, said that his ministry would partner all agencies of government to create new jobs.
He said that the ‘YES’ project of BoI was part of the Federal Government’s youths employment scheme, stressing that about 36,000 jobs would be created annually through ‘YES’.
Mr 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, noting that an applicant must present NYSC or higher education certificate as collateral to qualify for the loan with two external guarantors.
He said that the bank was partnering 11 consultants across the country for the first phase of the project.