CBN Reveals 7,057 Youths Received N3billion to Help their Businesses, with a Promise to do More
- The National Population Commission states about half of the population are made up of youth, defined as individuals between 15 and 34 years of age
- Out of this number, the National Bureau of Statistics in the fourth quarter of 2020, revealed 38.5 percent of the labour force aged 15 to 24 years were unemployed
- To solve this, the Nigerian Youth Investment Fund (NYIF) was set up by the Nigerian government to help youth ideas towards generating at least 500,000 jobs between 2020 and 2023
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), as part of its development initiatives in collaboration with the Federal Ministry of Youth and Sports Development, said it has so far released the sum of N3 billion to 7,057 beneficiaries across the country under the Nigeria Youth Investment Fund (NYIF).
This was revealed in the latest CBN report published on its website on Monday, 11 October 2021.
According to the report, the beneficiaries were 4,411 individuals and 2,646 owners of Small Medium Enterprise.
Source: Getty Images
What is NYIF
The NYIF program was launched as part of CBN'S efforts to improve access to finance for youth and youth-owned enterprises, create employment opportunities which it says will reduce youth restlessness, and strengthen the managerial capacity of the youth.
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The report also noted that NYIF seeks to provide Nigerian youth between the ages of 18-35 years with investment inputs required to build successful businesses.
The report said:
“We are looking at building an army of youths with entrepreneurs who will become sustainable employers of labour by generating at least 500,000 jobs in critical economic and social sectors between 2020 and 2023.”
Other disbursements
CBN also revealed in the report various development initiatives for youths which included the Creative Industry Financing Initiative (CIFI).
According to CBN the sum of N3.22 billion has been disbursed to 356 beneficiaries across movie production, movie distribution, software development, fashion, and IT verticals.
Report Reveals Almost 60% of Nigerian Youths have No idea or Skills of Microsoft Word
According to a recent 2020 National Youth Survey, less than half of Nigerian youth aged 15 to 35 have knowledge of the use of word processing software such as Microsoft Word, Google Docs, or OpenOffice.
The survey noted that out of 23.4 million youths surveyed, only 9.7 million indicated they have skills in word processing and 13.7 million reveal no competence in word processing.
The report also showed 21.8 million can browse the internet, while 3.6 million, 2.7 million, and 1.3 million indicated they have skills in graphics and design, specialist software packages, and certified IT experts, respectively.
Source: Legit.ng
