The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) presented six pioneer beneficiaries of the Tertiary Institutions Entrepreneurship Scheme (TIES) with N5 million cheques to help them grow their businesses, create jobs, and make meaningful impact to economic progress.
Mr Godwin Emefiele, Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, said the initiative was aimed at pushing students and graduates of Nigerian higher institutions away from white-collar occupations and toward entrepreneurship growth.
According to Emefiele, the goal is to make Nigerian graduates become job creators rather than job seekers, as is the case in several other countries.
The beneficiaries’ academic certificates would be held as collateral and returned to them once the loans were paid off, he said.
He said, “What we are doing today is something that is taken for granted in other climes. At the CBN, we are concerned about the level of unemployment within the youth population and we are taking steps to address it.’’
The CBN Governor has established an 11-member Body of Experts to steer the scheme, which is Chaired by Mr Abubakar Suleman, the Managing Director of Sterling Bank Plc.
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