The National Youth Council of Nigeria (NYCN) has commended President Muhammadu Buhari on the approval of the N75 billion Nigerian Youth Investment Fund, tasking the federal government to guard it jealously against diversion.
The Fund otherwise known as the Youth Bank was approved by the Federal Executive Council (FEC) Wednesday at a meeting presided by President Muhammadu Buhari.
President of NYCN, Solomon Adodo, in a statement issued in Abuja on Thursday said: “Care must be taken to ensure that funds made available for this project are not diverted by selfish elements who are bent on robbing Nigerian youths of their birthright and politicising every initiative for personal enrichment.”
NYCN said the approval of N75 billion for the establishment of the Fund has further confirmed its confidence that the President Muhammad Buhari administration is committed to ensuring self-actualisation of the youth.
NYCN explained that the initiative will not only energise the teaming number of youth with brilliant ideas but also steer the country’s economic growth.
It noted: “Once again, President Muhammadu Buhari has proven that he is a leader that has the interest of the young population at heart. The coming of his administration has not left anyone in doubt of its vision for a productive and vibrant youth participation in national development.
“To ensure that youth are gainfully engaged, the administration introduced several economic intervention programmes such as Anchor Borrowers scheme and N-Power to mention a few. All these have helped in reducing the volume of youth that were before now idling about.
“In the political sphere too, the President demonstrated his desire for the youth to take leadership roles by assenting to the Not Too Young to Run Bill into law as well as engaged a number of youth in his administration,” the youth body noted.
“NYCN notes with satisfaction similar funds made available by successive governments such as the Sure-P fund and the Agri-Business/Small and Medium Entreprise Investment Scheme as well as other youth friendly schemes which had the capacity to put an end to the unemployment situation in the country but were poorly implemented.”
Though the minister earlier hinted that the Federal Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), the Ministry of Youth and Sports Development and other relevant ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) would work out the modalities for its funding, the NYCN pledged to follow through to ensure that legible youth benefit from the initiative.
Minister of Youth and Sports, Mr. Sunday Dare, had while disclosing the approval of the fund by the Federal Executive Council in Abuja on Wednesday said the fund would be created to support enterprises, ideas and innovations evolved by about 68 million Nigerian youths, aged between 18 and 35.