GTN has gathered through the office of the Minister of Youth Development, Jamila Bio Ibrahim, that the Federal Executive Council has approved the establishment of the presidential initiative for the youth entrepreneurship cluster.
According to her, the first six clusters will be activated in the coming weeks, and will empower 50,000 entrepreneurs, “creating up to 500,000 direct jobs and over two million indirect engagements for young Nigerians”.
The minister stated this during the ongoing Ministerial Sectoral Update to mark the first anniversary of President Bola Tinubu’s administration, held at the Radio House in Abuja, on Thursday.
She also highlighted the establishment of the NextGen Bank, a specialised financial institution, which aims to “support youth-led initiatives in strategic sectors, providing vital financial services with an initial government investment of N5bn, matched by contributions from the Bank of Industry and private sector partners”.
We have identified the first six clusters to be started this year, which we will activate in the coming weeks. These clusters will empower 50,000 entrepreneurs, creating up to 500,000 direct jobs and over two million indirect engagements for young Nigerians.
“The second of our deliverables is the Youth Development Bank, in partnership with the Bank of Industry. We are setting up the NextGen Bank, to nurture young entrepreneurs with loans and business support, to bridge the gaps in access to capital for young people.
“So, the point of establishing this bank, which was a campaign promise of His Excellency, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, is to bridge those gaps in access to funds.
This bank is a specialised financial institution, which aims to support youth-led initiatives in strategic sectors, providing vital financial services with an initial government investment of N5bn, matched by contributions from the Bank of Industry and private sector partners,” she said.
The minister stated that the ministry had initiated a National Youth Skills programme to train 300,000 National Youth Service Corps members and 700,000 young people outside the NYSC scheme in the informal sector.The minister said the skills programme would serve as the administration’s non-kinetic approach to solving challenges of insecurity.
“The National Youth Skills Programme we have initiated is to train 300,000 NYSC corps members and 700,000 young people outside the NYSC Scheme. Because we have young people in the informal sector, we have high-risk young people who are neither educated nor skilled.
And if we address the challenges of this proportion of youth demography, we will go a long way to address challenges that our country is facing today, such as insecurity. So, this will serve as the administration’s non-kinetic approach to solving the challenges of insecurity,” Jamila said.
