Heritage Bank’s partnership
with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN)in the N3billion Youth Innovative
Entrepreneurship Development Programme (YIEDP) to empower young graduates has
kicked into its second phase with the invitation of over 1500 applicants for a
training workshop this week.
Following the inauguration of the initiative by the CBN
and the subsequent launch of abusiness application portal by Heritage Bank in
March this year, not
less than 4000 applications have been received.
Out of this number, 1,547 candidates, representing the
first batch of possible beneficiaries of soft loans for their business ideas,have
been shortlisted to report for a 3-day business development training workshop,
which will be conducted across CBN Enterprise Development Centres in the six
geopolitical zones.
According to a statement from the Corporate
Communications Department of Heritage Bank, the shortlisted candidates will be
contacted via SMS and Email on the details and modalities of the CBN-EDC
training.
After the training workshop,which is to herald the
third phase of the programme, each participant will be required to write a
comprehensive and viable business plan, submit on the application portal for
the Business Review Committee to screen, review and select the eligible and
viable business for YIEDP funding.
Commenting on the welcome development, the Managing
Director of the bank, Mr. Ife Sekibo, restated that the aim of Heritage Bank being
in the forefront of youth empowermentis to emancipate the latent
entrepreneurial spirit in the teeming youths, by providing adequate and
affordable loans to execute their business ideasand, hopefully, migrate them to
successful Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs), thereby, providing the
mechanism of stimulating growth, reducing unemployment as well as addressing youth
restiveness in the economy.
Sekibo added that “the bank’s passionate interest in the programmealso arises
from the fact that the initiative aligns very much with the vision of the bank,
which is to help partners create, preserve and transfer wealth across
generations.”
The statement from the bank also explained that
applications are still being received for subsequent batches of the programme and
advised interested youths to visit the portal, call 0700-HERITAGE or send a
mail to info@hbng.com
To be eligible
for the YIEDP funding, youths must be within the age bracket of 18 and 35 year
old, serving National Youth Corps members or non-NYSC members with not more
than five years post-service.
The apex bank
had selected Heritage Bank as its pilot partner bank to unveil, administer and
manage the laudable project, which will focus on dependable job-creating
sectors, such as agricultural value chain (fish farming, poultry, snail
farming), cottage industry, mining and solid minerals, creative industry
(tourism, arts and crafts), and Information and Communications Technology
(ICT).
Before this latest effort, the bank had
launched a N500 million Young Entrepreneurs and Students (YES) Grant in
Lagos. The initiative, which is in partnership with the Nigerian Youth
Professional Forum (NYPF), will, according to the bank, support students and
young entrepreneurs toward socio-economic freedom.
No comments:
Post a Comment