The federal government has stated its intention to collaborate with the Mastercard Foundation Fund for Resilience and Prosperity to create job opportunities for Nigerian youth, focusing on men, women, people living with disabilities, and Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs).
The Minister of Youth Development, Dr. Jamila Bio-Ibrahim, stated this when she received the Grants, Finance, and Risk Management Officer of Mastercard Foundation Fund, Abraham Jeff Ndambuki, who paid her a visit in her office in Abuja.
The minister said the ministry is focusing on priority sectors of the federal government which are agriculture, climate adaption, digital economy, blue-economy, mining, and renewable energy, so as to establish young people in Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs).
In a press statement signed and made available to Blueprint by head, press and public relations of the ministry, Mrs. Maryam Umar Yusuf, the minister expressed the preparedness of the ministry to partner with the Mastercard foundation and advised that participants for the programme should be selected in clusters so that each participant can leverage on the advantage of the others within the same cluster.
“She posited that this approach would provide greater opportunities for more young entrepreneurs to benefit from the fund.”
He promised to provide the foundation with a database of young people who will be beneficiaries and will ensure that the businesses are sustainable and successful.
“We are also in the process of designing a framework for the Youth Development Bank. The Youth Investment Fund is in the review process. We want to improve and expand on this programme. We will operationalize the fund. We are well open to ideas on how we can work together and collaborate on those Government priority sectors.”
In his presentation, the Manager Grants, Finance and Risk for the Mastercard Foundation Funds for Prosperity and Resilient, Mr. Ndambuki stated that the programme had been implemented in 20 African countries, and the Federal Republic of Nigeria is one of them.
