BoI signs MoU with capacity building facilitators

As part of its initiative towards facilitating and accelerating industrial development through financing, the Bank of Industry (BoI) has on Monday signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Entrepreneurship Capacity Building Facilitators (ECBF).

The MoU officially empowers the ECBF as partners in progress in the Youth Entrepreneurship Support Programme (YES), which is another initiative of the Bank designed to address youth unemployment in country as it is a step further on the Graduate Entrepreneurship Fund (GEF) programme organised for serving National Youth Corp Members (NYSC), launched in October 2015.

In his keynote address, Mr. Waheed Olagunju, Ag. Managing Director/Chief Executive officer, BoI, explained that YES programme entails building the capacity of the youths by equipping them with the requisite entrepreneurial knowledge and skills as well as funding their business plans, adding that it would enable them to be self-employed and manage their own business.

He said; “Participants would be drawn from young aspiring entrepreneurs between the ages of 18 and 35 years, with innovative ideas who must have a minimum educational qualification of an Ordinary National Diploma (OND) or its equivalent.”

Olagunju noted that creating an interactive learning platform to train young aspiring entrepreneurs in entrepreneurship business management and technical skills that will ultimately translate into improved efficiency and productivity was among its main objectives.

Stressing the objectives, he said; “To kindle the entrepreneurial spirit of the youths, to act as an incubation centre where business ideas are nurtured to their full potential as well as entrenching global best practices by inculcating a culture of innovation-driven entrepreneurship and ethics in the programme participants. Promotion of self-employment among graduates of institutions of higher learning, thereby hanging their job-seeking mindset and to deepen financial inclusion by de-risking the young aspiring entrepreneurs and making them eligible for small business loans to be provided by BoI”

According to the Bank Chief, an eight weeks extensive online entrepreneurship and business management training with the ability to test participants understanding and track their progress was has been put in place; pointing out that five days in class entrepreneurship and business management training for five modules was part of the programme plan.

He said that the programme would be focusing mainly commodity based industrialisation, maintaining that the bank will concentrate on the arrears where successful candidates have comparative advantage.

He said; we would be coming up with 40 industrial clusters, and we are looking at value addition, value chain, eg; processing cassava into starch, processing cassava into cassava flour. With this, farmers would be empowered to cultivate more, more persons would be employed on the value chain, which will eventually feed the industry.”

Nike Adeyemi, MD, Faith Foundation, one of the ECBF stated that GEF helped many unemployed youths acquired knowledge on how to start-up a business and how to run the business successfully.

She said; “This YES programme has raised the bar from what GEF was and the level it was. YES will better place our unemployed youths to better the country and help curb the alarming unemployment level in the country.”