FG Takes Youth Empowerment To A New Dimension, Establishes ‘Bank Of Youth’

The Federal Government has taken empowerment programmes for the youths to a new dimension with the establishment of a Nigeria Youth Investment Fund (NYIF), where youths can get loan to finance their businesses with very low interest rate.

The Minister of Youth and Sports Development, Mr Sunday Dare, disclosed the development during a town hall meeting with Delta youths over the weekend.

According to Dare, NYIF was liken to a ‘Bank for youths’, approved on July 22, 2020, with N25 billion capital per year for three years, with very low interest rate of between three to five percent per annum.

He stated that the ministry was working on a sustainable model, backup by legislation to make it a permanent feature for the youth, saying: “We intend to grow the money that we have from N25 billion to double it because it is designed in a way that we can have donor funding.”

Dare reiterated the federal government’s determination to providing an enabling environment and support for youths of the country to pursue their career and also to realise their legitimate dreams.

“I believe that the Nigerian youth in Lagos, Kano or Delta, their issues are the same, their aspirations are the same. They all have certain dreams, certain career that must be realised within the entity of Nigeria.

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“We are working closely with all the 36 states commissioners for youth development, including the nation’s capital, Abuja on the plan for the youths of the country so that whatever is being done at the national level is cascaded down to the states, especially when it comes with opportunities.

“As at now, we have 25 youth focused opportunities on going. Most of which started more than a year ago. I implore you to give it a shot by patronising all these programmes, it might not be the money, it might be some kind if training,” the minister said.

The federal minister for youth and sports development also revealed that the federal government was moving away from the usual schemes designed for the youths to investing in young persons, which he stated, was a continental and global paradigm shift.

“We have seen a lot of programmes that government is doing which put money in your pocket every month and that is for your sustenance you cannot use that as a capital to start any business.

“We want to change that, even when we train you, we develop what we call training into enterprise. We don’t want to train and send you back into the job market to look for job. We want to train you and place you on the path of entrepreneurship, provide you tools, provide you needed capital and finance so that you can be a self starter and an entrepreneur and a wealth creator,” he stated.

The minister enjoined the youth to acquire skills, especially on ICT other than the degree certificate they had, saying that there was a clear digital skill deficit in the country and across Africa.

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He also enjoined the youths to key into the virtual meetings of the ministry every Fridays and other programmes to get critical information and also ask questions on how to get funding and answers to issues bothering them.

Earlier, the Delta State Commissioner for Youth Development, Comrade Ifeanyi Egwunyenga, stated that the event was put together as part of efforts to engage the youths with a view to charting a new course towards building a new Nigeria where yearnings and aspirations of youths could find strong expression and fulfilment.

Comrade Egwunyenga said that the meeting was part of the call by the Nigeria youths for good governance and greater inclusion of the most active population of the country in governance, adding that such would guarantee the future of the nation.

He revealed that as a fallout of the EndSARS protests by the Nigerian youths, the Delta State Government had engaged the youths with the aim of having in its entirety a deeper understanding of the youth’s agitation.

He restated that the state government had also established a judicial panel of Inquiry to investigate complaints of police brutality and cases of extra-judicial killings in the state.

During the question and answer session, the various youths’ representatives from across the state which included, EndSARS protesters, Community youth, Ethnic nationalities, civil society organizations, female advocacy groups, students movement and youth stakeholders made contributions.

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They enjoined the minister to bring most of the youth programmes closer to the community youths, saying that they only read and hear of such programmes on the pages of the papers and broadcast stations

According to them, emphasis should be on job availability, awakening non functional federal industries in the state, more inclusion of youths in federal government policies, as well as increase and upscale youth programs for more youths to be accommodated.

They also tasked the minister to convey their message to the president to urgently address the issue of insecurity, saying that it was gradually destroying the socio-economic and the cohesion of the country.

The youth stakeholders urged the president to urgently consider putting the refineries in the Niger Delta in order, explaining that they could not imagine a nation like Nigeria with huge and vast crude oil importing petroleum products.

While decrying the deplorable condition of the federal roads in the South-South, especially the East-West Road, the youths call on the president to urgently declare a state of emergency on the roads and also address the epileptic power supply, which according to them was the bane of poverty in the land.

Present at the meeting were the Commissioner for Women Affairs, Community and Social Development, Mrs Flora Alanta; the Commissioner for Trade and Investment, Chief Chika Ossai, the Special Adviser to the Governor Ifeanyi Okowa on Peace Building and former PDP Chairman, Mr Edwin Uzor; the Executive Assistant to the Governor on Youth, Comrade Innocent Esewezie, amongst others.

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