The Bank of Industry said on Tuesday it had set aside N10 billion this year for the Youth Entrepreneurship Support Programme of the Federal Government.
Malam Aliyu Umaru, the North East Regional Head of the bank, made the disclosure in Maiduguri, the Borno State capital, at the opening of a five-day capacity building workshop for participants under the programme.
Umaru said the bank would engage 25,000 youths quarterly for the programme nationwide.
Umaru said: “We had about 71,788 applications based on the two online registration batches that we did.
“Based on this, we are envisaging that we will be getting 25, 000 participants every quarter and that makes it about 100,000 participants in a year.”
He said the participants were selected based on their business proposals and workability of their plans.
Umaru said that the participants would be granted loans of up to N5 million to set up their businesses at the end of the training.
He also stated: “At the end of the training, we will determine the exact requirements for each of the participant to set up a business.
“It is based on this that we will determine the actual amount that will be granted as loan to him or her.”
Umaru said that the bank had put in place mechanism to prevent fraud or default by the beneficiaries.
He noted: “If you are into groundnut oil production, we will visit your site, inspect the place and get your equipment requirements.
“Rather than give you cash, we will order the equipment direct from the sellers and pay them the actual price on your behalf.
“We will also make sure that the equipment is installed and production commences to avoid diversion.”
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