Impact of NYSC-CBN Skills Acquisition Scheme

Kelvin Gilbert

It is no longer news that the present leadership of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) is on a mission to re-write the economic history of Nigeria.

Right from when he assumed office in 2014, Godwin Emefiele never made any pretentions about his intention to go beyond its core mandate of monetary policy regulation to playing a leading role in the overall development of the Nigerian economy.

From the restriction of forex for the importation of 41 items, to support of the revival of the textile industry, to the support for small and medium enterprises (SMEs), support for the creative industry, the creation of centres of excellence in tertiary institutions and of course agriculture and agribusiness, the CBN has demonstrated uncanny determination, even in the face of criticisms and challenges, to ensure all-round development of Nigeria.

Consistent with that posture and in realisation of the fact that the future of the nation lies in the hands of the youths, the CBN came up with the Youth Entrepreneurship Development Programme, a programme that is aimed at sharpening the entrepreneurial skills of young Nigerians to make them self-reliant and to provide them with the seed capital needed for them to set up businesses.

This of course is coming as a rescue effort to stem the large army of unemployed youths roaming the streets in search of non-existent jobs.
Data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) showed that national unemployment rate rose to 33.3 percent in the fourth (Q4), 2020 from 27.1 percent in the second quarter (Q2) of the same year. The underemployment rate decreased from 28.6 percent to 22.8 percent. A combination of both the unemployment and underemployment rate for the year under review gave a figure of 56.1 percent.

The NBS data further revealed that youth population eligible to work was about 40 million, out of which only 14.7 million were fully employed, while the remaining 11.2 million were unemployed.

This huge unemployment situation stem mainly from the non-availability of openings for them to be employed and the state of the nation’s education system which only prepares the students for employment without any entrepreneurial skills.

As a first step towards solving this huge unemployment gap and the lack of entrepreneurial skills by the students, the CBN wrote to universities across the country to begin to conduct a kind of entrepreneurship development competition programme. The essence of this is to stimulate entrepreneurial interest among the youth.

The CBN in coming up with the YEDP initiative was targeting the over 16 million unemployed young Nigerians.

It also believed that access to credit through the platform would be a powerful instrument to grow businesses and the economy.

The CBN Governor, in one of his outings, said YEDP was part of the plan by the CBN and the Federal Government to create over one million direct jobs.

He added that the YEDP has the potential of becoming the stimulus for job and wealth creation, growth and economic development through improved access to finance for young entrepreneurs.

This initiative aligns perfectly with one of the core objectives of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) scheme which is to contribute to the accelerated growth of the national economy.

Over the years, the NYSC has pursued various measures geared towards critically engaging corps members constructively during their service year. One of such is the entrepreneurship week, which it holds in collaboration with the National Directorate of Employment (NDE).

Through that programme, Corps members are trained and introduced to various skills designed to make them establish as start-ups after their service year.

Before the intervention of the CBN, one of the major challenges of the skills acquisition programme of the NYSC has been funding. According to the Director General, Brig. Gen. Shuaibu Ibrahim, “The major challenges of the SAED programme are inadequate finance for Corps Empowerment, which include skill and entrepreneurial training facilities, business start-up capital, access to mentorship as well as insufficient bilateral and multilateral collaborations.”

It was therefore in direct response to this outcry by the NYSC boss that the CBN decided to collaborate with the NYSC in the implementation of its Youth Entrepreneurship Development Programme (YEDP), with a target to create a total of one million jobs.

Under the programme, the Central bank in collaboration with Heritage Bank Plc would develop the entrepreneurial capacity of the youths as well as provide them with fund of a maximum of N3 million each to operate a business.

This is not the first time the CBN and the NYSC are collaborating on skills acquisition initiative for corps members. In 2008, the NYSC went into collaboration with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to seek ways of getting seed capital for the corps members who have gone through the skills acquisition programme. It started with 600 corps members per edition. Through the programme, over 2000 corps members were reached.

What, however, makes the latest collaboration different is that this time round, the youths do not just get trained, but there is a pool of fund to the tune of N2.5 billion set aside by the CBN as loan to be accessed by the youths who have good entrepreneurial skills.

The loan is part of the N220 billion set aside for the Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs), which has been lying fallow since it was released in 2012.

Emefiele, said that each corps member is entitled to a maximum of N3 million, adding that their degree certificates and their NYSC discharge certificates would serve as their collaterals.

“We are determined to give support to the youths and I truly must thank the NYSC that has helped us to put together the first set of NYSC, both present and past ones, so that we can nurture them as young entrepreneurs not as people who go into the world looking for jobs, but nurture them as people who are developing the entrepreneurial spirit, entrepreneurial skills, not only for their good but also for the good of the country.

“We do not anticipate that any of them fails. The reason is because Nigeria is not the only country where SME loans have been granted. It has been successful in different countries. In South East Asian economies, it has been successful.”

Already the sum of N774 million has so far been disbursed to 310 beneficiaries of the programme.

Some of the activities covered under the programme are startups and expansion projects in the agricultural value chain (fish farming, poultry and snail farming), cottage industry, mining and solid minerals.

Gilbert wrote from Abuja