THE Central Bank of Nigeria has said that the N75bn Nigerian Youth Investment Fund will be disbursed soon.
The apex bank said this in a Tweet while commemorating the country’s Independence at 60.
The fund, amounting to N75bn, will be rolled out in three years at N25bn yearly, while N12.5bn is expected to be rolled out for the remaining part of 2020.
The central bank funded initiative is expected to reduce the country’s increasing unemployment rate, the government said.
Nigeria’s unemployment rate had risen to 27.1 per cent, from 23 per cent in 2018, indicating that about 21.7million Nigerians are currently unemployed.
“Nigerian Youth Investment Fund…Coming soon, ” the apex bank said in the tweet.
The Ministry of Youth and Sports Development is seeking the fund to invest in the skills, innovative ideas and business enterprise of the Nigerian Youth between the ages of 18 to 35.
The Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Sports and Youth Development, Gabriel Audu, had said the fund would serve as a catalyst to unleash the potential of the youth to enable many of them to build businesses that would employ and empower the youth.
Deputy Governor, Corporate Services of the CBN, Edward Adamu, had said the CBN was focused on stimulating economic growth, The Point reports.
Adamu said, “I want to reiterate the strong commitment of the CBN towards supporting measures that would bring the nation from our over dependence on imported goods, so that we can create wealth, create jobs for our teaming youths and just improve lives and livelihood of Nigerians as we strive to promote a very stable financial system.
“I want to emphasise what the CBN governor has consistently said, that the central bank is committed to its core mandate of maintaining price and exchange rate stability.
“We are also committed to ensuring that we have a conducive macroeconomic environment for growth. We are committed to fostering development for an efficient credible and reliable credit system.
“We are committed to a very stable exchange rate and the growth of our reserves and diversifying the economy.”
He also said the CBN would continue to support the diversification through its intervention programmes and development finance in the agric sector, manufacturing sector, and MSMEs because they are critical to the development of the economy.
