Supposed awardees of ‘YouWiN’ under the administration of president Muhammadu Buhari, has said that the empowerment program has left them worse off and frustrated.
Former President Goodluck Jonathan launched the Youth Enterprise with Innovation in Nigeria (YouWiN) program with plenty of fanfare circa 2012.
YouWiN was fashioned to help young entrepreneurs and women float their own businesses, given Nigeria’s huge unemployment figures.
To achieve this goal, the government was going to hand beneficiaries grants, technical support and guidance through mentors.
At the launch of the 4th edition of YouWiN in 2014, Jonathan claimed that the government’s empowerment project had created more than 22,000 jobs and counting.
With Jonathan losing the 2015 presidential contest to Buhari, YouWiN was always going to face an uncertain future.
However, in June of 2016, the Buhari administration through the ministry of finance, announced that it was reviving YouWiN.
Buhari’s redesigned and repackaged version of YouWiN was named YouWiNConnect!
The Buhari administration also announced that it had approved the payment of N2.6B to 638 YouWiN awardees in 2016.
According to Salisu Dambatta, Director of information in the ministry of finance, YouWiNConnect was going to combine funding with enterprise education to better prepare entrepreneurs in areas such as accessing bank finance, accounting, marketing and tax filing.
Dambatta said the refocused and redesigned YouWiN will take the empowerment program “to the next level.”
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