Hello young people, it is still a great time to be young. President Buhari unveils a N75 billion Youth Bank for Nigerian young people (forget the extra bureaucracy, we must celebrate this call). Mr. President, this is commendable – and we want more. Let’s manage it well and lift our young people to fire on all cylinders.
Yes, I am really happy for this move by President Buhari and his team: “For the first time in the history of Nigeria, the federal executive council today approved the establishment of the Nigerian Youth Investment Fund (NYIF) to the tune of N75 billion. This fund is meant to create a special window for accessing credit facilities and financing on the part of our youths that will help to fund their ideas, innovations and also support their enterprise”.
Though I am not a fan of multiple bureaucracies with endless mutating agencies and parastatals, no one should complain when the government does something good. My only desire is that NYIF does not become another YouWin or run as Bank of Industry with its challenging lending requirements.
President has put forward a vision, it is now for the young people to rise. It is the season of banking with the new Infrastructure Development Company just a few days ago; I was not a fan of that one. They have baptized this young fund as a Youth Bank.
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“The federal ministry of finance, budget and national planning will take the lead when it comes to the aspect of financing, working with the CBN, the ministry of youth and sports development and other relevant MDAs,” he said.
The Minister explained that the NYIF will serve as a Youth Bank that will fund and support their innovative ideas, skills, talents and enterprises. It will also serve as a loan and credit pathway dedicated to enabling access to credit and soft loans.
He further disclosed that the NYIF N75 billion will last for three years, while he praised President Muhammadu Buhari for using the approval to demonstrate his “unflinching support for the Nigerian youth” and show his “implicit confidence in their innovative talents, potentials and industry.”
Dare said the development has fulfilled Buhari’s assertion that “it is our collective responsibility to ensure that we provide adequate resources to meet the basic needs of our teeming youth.”
How do we Manage this fund?
I will run one simple idea – have a clear requirement that the government will only co-invest/co-support/co-fund ideas which are also receiving private capital with full registration in the Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC) Nigeria. The implication is this: for any youth to receive the Youth Bank funds, his/her ideas must also be attractive to a venture capital (VC) firm or a bank. Doing that will remove corruption in the management of this fund. Yes, briefcase entrepreneurs would be eliminated.
More so, the investors must have assets under management of at least $1 million with a minimum of 5 prior investments in Nigerian companies. The SEC must sign-off with a clear supervision to ensure the private investors are also risking their funds.
Winning as a startup goes beyond money. So, having these private entities would be catalytic. Government needs to strike a VC partnership on this Youth Bank vision, for something huge, which can change Nigeria for good.
Nigerian Government Approves N75 Billion Youth Investment Fund for Entrepreneurs
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Awesome news!
This could work, but may also throw up another bureaucratic bottleneck, thereby frustrating the very people we want to lift up.
Another way to manage this fund is for the government to ask Nigerians to nominate five or seven Nigerians of impeccable character and expertise to have total control over this fund, and once they sign off on any successful applicant, the latter would be credited via the designated bank. Government agency or officials shouldn’t have anything to do with this fund, once you get them involved on any layer at all, you are not going to be successful.
Since we rarely have strategic vision here, the selected managers will develop a framework covering all the sectors we would like to direct the funds, while detailing their potential impacts, if the beneficiaries thrive, with measurable metrics and milestones instituted.
Nigeria is not at the level where we can spend another six months or one year just to work out how to disburse funds successfully, we need to think smarter and act quicker; we are losing more grounds on every single day wasted.
Anything government related should stay away from this fund, they can supervise after the funds have been put to work, but their input is not needed prior to that.
What is the link to apply for it please