The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), in partnership with the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) and Sterling Bank, under the CBN-Entrepreneurship Development Centre (CBN-EDC), is inviting final year students of the University, who are preparing for their mandatory one-year NYSC, to take advantage of the Youth Entrepreneurship Development Programme (YEDP) for self-empowerment. According to the Project Director of the Centre, Dr. Olumide Ajayi, the programme commenced in Nigeria in 2008 with a goal to fighting unemployment, engendering wealth and creating jobs for Nigerian youths, and through CBN-EDC, alongside its implementing agency; the Africa Leadership Forum, over 18,000 people had been trained, while more than N440 million had been accessed as business loans in the last 10 years.

Interested individuals could take advantage of the offer, to obtain as much as between N3m and N10m in a group of three, to start up a business.  Students, who partake in the scheme and obtain the loan, would be redeployed to the base, where they wish to commence their businesses and be allowed to use such engagements, as a service to the nation. In otherwords, their businesses would be considered as their places of primary assignments for the period of their youth service. Required documents needed to access the loan by an applicant include: student’s Bachelor’s degree certificate, bankable business plan, NYSC certificate or call-up number, verifiable means of identification and certificate of entrepreneurship training, which could be obtained after a six-week training at the YEDP Centre, which had been fully paid for by CBN, as each participant would register with the sum of N5,000. For more details, interested students should contact the website: www.edcsouthwest.org, send e-mail to: olumideajayi@edcsouthweste.org, or call: 08023011543.