Amnesty Office Prepares Niger Delta Youths for NIRSAL Loans

Olusegun Samuel in Yenagoa

The Presidential Amnesty Programme (PAP) has commenced training programmes to prepare Niger Delta youths, including ex-militants, for loans offered by the Nigeria Incentive-based Risk Sharing System for Agricultural Lending (NIRSAL).

PAP is facilitating the process through capacity-building to help entrepreneurs in the region get qualifications required to apply for the loans.

The first phase of the training, which had 60 youths in attendance, kicked off in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State, last Monday.

The Interim Administrator of PAP, Col. Milland Dikio (rtd), said 3,000 entrepreneurs had the opportunities to benefit from the loans to expand their businesses.

He explained that NIRSAL would select 30 youths for the pilot survey of the loan initiative after the trainings.

Dikio, who was represented by his Special Adviser on Project, Godwin Ekpo, emphasised that PAP was only acting as a guide to give qualified entrepreneurs from the region the opportunity to access the loans.

The told the ex-agitators that the loans were not bazaars and should be paid back when obtained within the terminal period to enable NIRSAL extend the gesture to others.

Dikio explained that the loans offered by NIRSAL were free of collateral with low interests, but must be secured by guarantors to facilitate repayments.

He said PAP decided to facilitate it because such opportunity was in line with his vision to turn the youths, especially the ex-agitators, to entrepreneurs.

The PAP boss said the loans were for those who were already running their businesses to help them expand their ventures in order to generate more jobs for the people.

According to him, “NIRSAL is supporting the SMEs with soft loans to enable them expand their businesses. As PAP, our vision is to help our delegates become entrepreneurs and/or employable citizens contributing to the economy. So, we look out for opportunities where they can access some level of funding to take their businesses to the next level.

“We have other people that will be joining after this; this is just a pilot scheme. The partnership is one that will grow and we have a larger number. It must be stated again that this is not a grant; these are low interest loans, single digit with no collateral that will be paid back after a while. The tenure of repayment and other conditions are stated in the papers they will sign.

“We hope that these delegates will become more successful entrepreneurs in future as a result of this funding. Some of them are into agriculture and small scale businesses, and we hope this fund will help them expand.”

In his remarks, the lead consultant, Paul Tyokosu, said the essence of the training was to enable the entrepreneurs have access to funding and skills to promote their businesses.

He urged the trainees to think of farming, agro-businesses and other agricultural value chain to expand their businesses and create more employment opportunities.

One of the trainees, Amatari Ogon, who runs a poultry farm, commended Dikio for introducing Niger Delta youths to opportunities that would empower them.