75 Billion Economic Empowerment Fund – A World Bank Grant

The economic empowerment fund grant strives to resolve the triple-barreled constraints of insufficiency, high cost, and inadequate term of capital usually faced by youth entrepreneurs and startups. It offers a credit of up to 20K  to eligible youth or 10 million for groups of three to five youths.

The tenor broadly depends on project complexity and cash flow but is between one year for a working capital loan and three years for a term loan.

This was in recognition of the fact that there was no better segment of the Nigerian population than the youths to propel us to our much-needed economic recovery and diversification.

In the third quarter of 2015, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) indicated that of the 36.3 million youths representing 48% of the nation’s labor force, 13.6 million or 37.7% of them were either unemployed or underemployed. This situation could not be allowed to fester given that many of our youths had very bright ideas and big dreams but are constrained by scarce seed funding.

The YEDP aims to fix the triple-barreled constraints of insufficiency, high cost, and inadequate term of capital usually faced by youth entrepreneurs and startups. It offers a credit of up to 20K million to eligible youth or 10 million for groups of 3 – 5 youths.

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Tenor broadly depends on project complexity and cash flow but is between 1 year for a working capital loan and 3 years for a term loan. The collateral requirements are quite simple: academic and NYSC certificates, third-party guarantees, and other movable assets.

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Those who possess a verifiable tertiary institution certificate, and artisans with First School Leaving Certificate or a technical certificate or accredited proficiency certificate from the National Board for Technical Education (NBTE), whichever is applicable. Beneficiaries can be encouraged to migrate to other CBN interventions to obtain more funding if they utilize the YEDP facility properly.

The Guidelines for the program reveal that activities eligible for financing include startups and expansion projects in agricultural value chains (fish farming, poultry, snail farming, etc.), cottage Industry, creative industry (tourism, arts and crafts), and Information and Communications Technology (ICT) among others.

What Are the Requirements for the Economic Empowerment Fund Grant?

The world bank had outlined in the NYIF framework, the businesses, and activities that are legally allowed to be eligible to participate in the scheme. These include technology/innovation, agriculture and its related value chain, the green economy, and the renewable energy sector.

The Guidelines for the programme indicate that activities eligible for financing include startups and expansion projects in agricultural value chains (fish farming, poultry, snail farming, etc.), cottage Industry, creative industry (tourism, arts and crafts) and Information and Communications Technology (ICT) among others.

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Others are manufacturing, hospitality/tourism, construction, logistics and supply chain, healthcare value chain, the creative sector, trading, and services, as well as others that would be certified by the CBN from time.

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Furthermore, it noted that beneficiaries of other government loan schemes that remain unpaid are also not eligible to participate in the Economic Empowerment Fund grant. The loan tenor, according to the framework, is a maximum of 5 years depending on the nature of the business and the assets acquired.

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