The Bank of Industry (BOI) has inaugurated a major youth empowerment initiative, committing N2 billion to provide affordable enterprise loans exclusively to members of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC).
The initiative, officially tagged the ‘N2bn BOI–NYSC Entrepreneurship Programme’, aims to rapidly tackle rising youth unemployment by converting the one-year service program into a launchpad for business ownership.
Speaking at the inauguration ceremony in Abuja, BOI Managing Director Olasupo Olusi (represented by Executive Director for MSMEs Shekarau Omar) detailed the scheme’s highly favourable terms. Beneficiaries can access up to N5 million each at a single-digit interest rate of 9% per annum.
The loans feature a generous repayment period of three years, accompanied by a three-month moratorium on both principal and interest.
Olusi described the program as a “practical step” towards fundamentally moving young Nigerians from being job seekers to becoming job creators.
He pointed to the successful groundwork laid by previous collaborations, such as the Graduate Entrepreneurship Fund (GEF), which trained over 3,000 graduates and successfully financed 609 businesses with over N1 billion in disbursements.
“These numbers are not just statistics, they represent poultry farms, fashion houses, tech start-ups and creative studios brought to life,” he noted. “When young people receive targeted capacity building, affordable finance and mentoring, they repay, they employ, and they grow.”
Olusi stressed that the success of the new N2 billion fund would be measured by the number of jobs created and the sustainability of the businesses thriving beyond the service year. He urged corps members to view their service year not as a “waiting room, but a launch pad”.
Responding to the commitment, the NYSC Director-General, Olakunle Nafiu, commended the BOI for its continuous support, noting that the collaboration began as far back as 2012 with the launch of the Skills Acquisition and Entrepreneurship Development (SAED) programme.
Nafiu highlighted the significance of the affordable financing component.
“This is not just credit, it is confidence. Confidence that the ideas of young Nigerians are worth investing in,” said Nafiu.
He underscored the sheer scale of the opportunity, noting that over 400,000 corps members pass through the program annually, and called on the BOI to consider expanding the fund to N5 billion to reach a larger pool of aspiring entrepreneurs.
This joint initiative is expected to stimulate small business growth, strengthen youth empowerment, and deepen the public-private partnership model essential for inclusive economic development in Nigeria.
