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Romanus Ugwu, Abuja
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), has expressed willingness to provide opportunities for self-employment of Corps members through its skill acquisition training.
CBN Governor, Godwin Emefiele, who made the promise when the Director-General of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC), Brig-Gen Shuaibu Ibrahim, paid him a courtesy visit in his office, stressed the need for sustained efforts at reducing the rate of unemployment.
He further noted that interested corps members could attend the CBN entrepreneurship training centres to acquire skills in various vocational areas for economic survival at the end of the Service year instead of waiting for white collar jobs.
He announced that such arrangement would empower corps members for the establishment of small and medium scale enterprises and contribute to the growth of the economy.
Speaking at the event, CBN Governor explained that upon completion of training, beneficiaries would benefit in kind from working tools and support for renting of business offices or workshops, the cumulative value of which represents a loan that would be repaid within seven years with a two-year moratorium.
“An earlier programme, the Youth Entrepreneurship Development Programme, was launched by the Bank in 2016 to serve as a springboard for empowerment of Corps members and other youths for self-employment and wealth creation. Tthe CBN National Microfinance Bank would also support interested Corps members in business financing.
“We want to advocate patronage of the Nigerian textile industry, the largest employer of labour in the country in the 1990s, as a way of providing more jobs for Nigerians and further developing the economy,” he said.
