The Director general of the National Youth Service Corp NYSC, Brig -Gen. Johnson Olawumi yesterday announced that the scheme had secured a N200 million bank facility for disbursement to corps members as loans to enable them start any business of their choice. The DG said this while receiving the Commander, Guards Brigade, Nigerian Army, Brig.-Gen. Musa Yusuf who paid him a courtesy call at the NYSC headquarters in Abuja.
“We train these corps members in the camp, after the camp, we have partners all over the country where corps members also receive training throughout the service year. Now, the issue is that when they get this training they don’t have start-up capital but we have been doing a lot to see there is opportunity for them to get startup capital. We have the NYSC foundation as we speak, the NYSC foundation has just approved loan worth N10 million for corps members.
Corps members, based on the business plan they submit, could get as much as N250,000 and N400,000. We have also signed an MoU with Bank of Industry though it is yet to take off but we are working on it. A couple of months ago, I also approached Heritage Bank and Heritage Bank is setting aside the sum of N200 million under a package where corps members will get a soft loan and the only collateral they will have to drop will be their discharge certificate.
We are also talking with Central Bank Governor to see that a micro credit loan could be arranged specially to address corps members in this category.” he said.
LIB