A Youth Corper can raise money for business
If you are a corper, you can raise up to 5 million from different NYSC empowerment schemes available in Nigeria to pursue your business idea and become employer of labour. These schemes can be grants or loans. Grants can be referred to as free money where you don’t have to pay back. In the case of loans, it usually has between 3 to 5 years payback period at single digit interest rate. In addition to these, you can enjoy a moratorium (i.e. the period before your loan starts to count) of up to 6 months. Interestingly, many people are unaware of these opportunities neither is there more than a few utilizing them.
There are several reasons which can be attributed to the lack of awareness or purposed lack of interest in the NYSC empowerment schemes. These reasons can be technical or personal or both. In the case of technical, the corper might not have the technical knowhow on how to prepare an idea and position it ready for funding. On the other hand some don’t just have confidence in the system and do not trust it to be transparent and sincere. However, some are simply ignorant.
Transition from higher institution into the labour market is a major challenge in Nigeria. This is because there are simply not enough jobs available. According to the Nigeria Bureau of statistics, each year, about 1.8 million young Nigerians enter the already saturated labour market. In addition to the non availability of jobs, some school of thought has it that even our graduates are not employable. Personally, I see the transition phase as a critical time for life defining decisions in the lives of our young graduates. This phase can also be described as transition from an idealistic view of life to reality. What can be better than support to do precisely what you wish to do? Contact Kadelex for support
There are several funding schemes targeted at NYSC empowerment. Some of these schemes are governmental while others are non-governmental. Furthermore, some are specifically for NYSC members while others are for the larger youth population. However, your application will be reviewed by professionals who must get a sense of readiness, willingness and ability from your application for you to even scale through the application stage. Unsurprisingly, less than 15% of applications at this stage satisfy these requirements. A failure to scale through doesn’t mean you have a bad idea. Rather it means you are not ready for funding. Contact Kadelex for support
Funding opportunities for NYSC members
Firstly, I will talk about opportunities available at this point in time where corpers can go straight away to apply.
- CBN’s Youth Entrepreneurship Development Program (YEDP)
This is a scheme specific to NYSC empowerment. Serving corpers and graduate corpers of not more than 5 years post NYSC are targeted. It is a N2.5 billion fund where you can access up to 3 million naira for single obligator and N10 million for group projects at 9% interest rate, payback of 3-5 years, and a moratorium of up to 6 months. Therefore if you are a corper with a viable business idea in any of the 6 sectors, you can apply. These sectors include agricultural value chain, cottage industry, mining and solid minerals, creative industry, information and communications technology and any other activity that may be determined by the CBN from time to time.
To learn more about CBN’s YEDP program click the link https://www.cbn.gov.ng/Devfin/yedp.asp . You can download the guideline from the link page.
To apply for the YEDP programme, you can follow the links below. At the moment, Heritage bank and sterling bank are accepting applications.
For heritage bank: www.yiedp-hbng.com
For sterling bank: https://www.sterlingbankng.com/yedp
- The Growth and employment Project GEM through the BIG Platform
The Growth and Employment Project is implemented by the Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment (FMITI) and supported by the World Bank. The sectors focused on include construction, entertainment, information and communication technology, hospitality and tourism, and light manufacturing. This is a $150 million fund. The participating businesses will receive support in the following ways: free technical assistance: including training and consulting services and possibly grants available in 5 categories: equity, matching, performance, institutional, innovative.
To learn more about the BIG Platform, click the link https://bigportal.org.ng
To apply click the link https://bigportal.org.ng/access
Others that are available at other times of the year may include:
- Band of Industry’s Youth Entrepreneurship support program (YES). boi.ng/yes
- Tony Elumelu Entrepreneurship Program (TEEP). tonyelumelufoundation.org/teep
- Diamond bank’s Building Entrepreneurs Today (BET). diamondbankbet6.com
There are also a lot of other funding options that spring up from time to time. In order not to miss any opportunity, simply follow us on social media. Contact us at www.epsolutions.com.ng if you require help with your application for a free consultation.
One more thing, don’t forget to share this post with friends. Good luck!
