From Okwe Obi, Abuja
Minister of Youth and Sports Development, Sunday Dare, has disclosed that 6,054 entrepreneurs, who are mostly youths have benefitted from the N75 billion National Youth Investment Funds (NYIF), approved by President Muhammadu Buhari last year.
Dare, who spoke yesterday at the All Nigeria Rotary Conference in Abuja, with the theme “Uniting Nigeria through Rotary,” revealed that 25,000 are on standby to go through the specified training before funds disbursement.
Represented by his Special Assistant on Multimedia, Toyin Ibitoye, he said: “Our National Youth Investment Fund (NYIF), a N75bn soft loan for Small and Medium Scale Enterprises (SMEs) was approved by President Muhammadu Buhari last year and the target is simple – Grow economies of our vibrant youth enterprises.
“Crafted as a three-year loan of N25bn annually with each beneficiary getting between N250,000 and N3m, 6,054 entrepreneurs have benefited so far, while another 25,000 are on standby to go through the specified training before funds disbursement.
“Our national GDP, accounting for 96 per cent of businesses and 84 per cent of employment, growing local economies must also mean growing SMEs.”
Aside urging Rotarians to sustain the tempo of touching lives across board, he advised the youths to venture into volunteerism for the betterment of the society.
Earlier, the Governor of District 9142, Dr Okey Okonkwo, explained that the essence of the meeting was to enable Rotarians across the country share ideas on how to strengthen philanthropic work.
“Today, all the districts in Nigeria: 9110, 9140, 9142 and 9125 are coming together to share fellowship, rekindle our friendship across board because we are all one and share ideas on how to do our work better. The essence is for us to reconnect and open more opportunities for partnerships, friendships and collaborations,” he said.