The Bank of Industry (BOI) has launched a ₦2 billion entrepreneurship programme to provide affordable loans to National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) members, as part of efforts to reduce unemployment and promote youth-led enterprises.
The initiative, tagged the ₦2bn BOI–NYSC Entrepreneurship Programme, will enable serving corps members to access up to ₦5 million each at a single-digit interest rate of nine percent per annum.
The loan is repayable over three years, with a three-month moratorium on both principal and interest.
Speaking at the launch in Abuja on Wednesday, the Executive Director for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) at BOI, Shekarau Omar, said the scheme is a practical intervention aimed at transforming young Nigerians from job seekers to job creators.
Omar, who represented the BOI Managing Director, Dr. Olasupo Olusi, said the programme builds on previous collaborations such as the Graduate Entrepreneurship Fund (GEF) launched in 2015, which trained over 3,000 graduates, financed 609 businesses, and disbursed more than ₦1 billion in loans.
“These numbers are not just statistics — they represent poultry farms, fashion houses, salons, tech start-ups, and creative studios brought to life,” he said.
“When young people receive targeted capacity building, affordable finance, and mentoring, they repay, they employ, and they grow.”
He commended the NYSC’s Skills Acquisition and Entrepreneurship Development (SAED) department for training corps members to become self-reliant, noting that the new loan scheme would complement SAED’s objectives.
“To our corps members, your service year is a launch pad, not a waiting room,” Omar said. “Start small, plan well, and stay disciplined about cash flow and compliance.
“With creativity and determination, you can become the next generation of entrepreneurs shaping Nigeria’s future.”
He expressed appreciation to the NYSC Director-General, Brigadier-General Olakunle Nafiu, and other partners for their contributions to the initiative, adding that the programme’s success would be measured by the number of loans approved, jobs created, and businesses that thrive beyond the service year.
“The Bank of Industry remains committed to empowering Nigeria’s youth and building a stronger, more resilient economy,” Omar stated.
In his remarks, the NYSC Director-General, Brigadier-General Nafiu, described the collaboration as a reaffirmation of the shared vision between NYSC and BOI to build a future driven by skilled and empowered youth.
He urged BOI to increase the funding to ₦5 billion to enable more corps members to benefit from the scheme.
“This event is a reaffirmation of a shared vision between two great institutions: the NYSC, which symbolises the nation’s faith in its youth, and the Bank of Industry, which has for decades stood as a pillar of Nigeria’s industrial development and enterprise growth,” Nafiu said.
He recalled that the partnership between both institutions began in 2012 with the launch of the SAED programme and was later strengthened through the Graduate Empowerment Fund (GEF), which provided start-up capital for corps entrepreneurs.
Nafiu said the NYSC has since embarked on a comprehensive repositioning of the SAED initiative to ensure that every corps member emerges as either a business owner or a workplace-ready professional.
“Our goal is to build livelihoods for all 400,000 young Nigerians who go through the NYSC programme annually,” he said.
“By integrating entrepreneurship education, digital readiness, and access to finance, we are creating a pipeline of innovators and problem-solvers for Nigeria’s future.”
He added that BOI’s intervention addresses one of the biggest challenges facing young entrepreneurs — access to affordable financing.
“This is not just credit; it is confidence — confidence that the ideas of young Nigerians are worth investing in and that our future business leaders are already among us,” Nafiu said.
He assured that the NYSC had put in place strong measures to ensure transparency and impact in the implementation of the programme.
