The Central Bank of Nigeria plans to offer loans to National Youth Service Corps members to start small and medium scale enterprises, which they will repay in seven years.
The country’s unemployment rate leapt to 23.10% in the third quarter of 2018 from 22.70% in the second quarter, an average of 12.31% from 2006 until 2018 and reaching an all-time high of 23.10% and a record low of 5.10% in the fourth quarter of 2010.
The country’s youth corp members will be expected to attend the bank’s entrepreneurship training centres to acquire vocational skills.
Upon completion of their training, the loans will provide support for acquiring working tools and rent of business offices or workshops.
Beneficiaries will receive the cumulative value which represents a loan that will be repaid within seven years with a two-year moratorium.
In 2016, the apex bank launched the Youth Entrepreneurship Development Programme which served as a springboard for the empowerment of corps members and other youths for self-employment and wealth creation.