The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has proposed partnering with tertiary institutions to foster entrepreneurship among youths by providing them with start-up capital for their businesses after graduation, in order to address rising youth unemployment in the country, particularly among fresh graduates.
Dr. Godwin Emefiele, Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, made the announcement at the 35th Conference of the Association of Vice Chancellors of Nigerian Universities (AVCNU), which was held at the Wudil auditorium of Kano University of Science and Technology. Dr. Adebowale Olabimtan Idowu, the bank’s Director of Development Finance, represented him.
Emefiele said the proposed partnership would also provide a platform for building digital skills relevant to Nigeria’s developmental goals.
He said: “In furtherance of this objective, the CBN proposes to partner with tertiary institutions to create a paradigm shift among students of the institutions from the orientation of pursuit of white collar jobs to start up business as employers of labour across MSME sectors.
“The focus is to instill a culture of entrepreneurial development among the youth prior to graduation, by supporting them with start-up capital for their enterprises.
“This situation has contributed significantly to the rising youth unemployment across the country. To address this trend, there have been calls for a paradigm shift in our academic orientation of our graduating students from job seeking to job creation through entrepreneurship development.
“This re-orientation is also critical to the recovery efforts to address job losses, low productivity and weak growth impacts of post-COVID-19 pandemic on the productive sectors of the economy and the fallouts from the dwindling oil revenues accruable to the country.
“Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) portend great opportunities for addressing these gaps and accelerating the economic growth, leveraging on our vibrant youth populations.
“To this end, the CBN is developing a Tertiary Institutions Entrepreneurship Scheme (TIES) to re-orientate, train and finance entrepreneurship ideas among our graduates.
“The scheme is designed to support the development entrepreneurial mindsets and culture through the introduction of a platform that provides seamless access to affordable finance to graduates through innovative channels for participation.”
Appreciating the theme of the convention: ‘Pathways to Green Investing Creative Funding and Darq Technologies in Nigeria,’ the CBN Governor said an estimated 600,000 graduates enter the labour market annually seeking the “already thinned out white collar jobs.”
The scheme, according to Emefiele, is aimed at graduates of tertiary institutions such as universities, polytechnics, monotechnics, and colleges, and will focus on three themes: reorienting graduates toward entrepreneurship, promoting entrepreneurship training and skill acquisition, and facilitating access to finance for innovative business ideas.
CBN officials will visit tertiary institutions to gather ideas, discuss implementation dynamics, and share preliminary views of the proposed Scheme, he said.
It was discovered that in order to be eligible for the scheme, the graduate must have a written business idea or plan. He had to have been out of university for at least one month and up to five years.
According to CBN, his or her certificate will be used as collateral to gain access to lending facilities.
Source: The Nations