Dissecting Fed Govt’s N75b investment fund for Nigerian youths

The Federal Government’s N75billion Youth Investment Fund came at a time the youth’s clamour for good governance is on the front burner. Can this fund help? CHINAKA OKORO writes.

Two significant things happened at the Aso Villa Banquet hall on November 1. It was the day the country celebrated maiden edition of the National Youth Day where 15 young Nigerians innovators were also specially recognised for their talent, creativity and innovations. It was also the day the Federal Ministry of Youth and Sports Development led by the minister, Sunday Dare, launched the N75billion Nigeria Youth Investment Fund.

At the National Youth Day event with the theme: ‘Invest in the youth, secure our future’, President Muhammadu Buhari was represented by Minister of Federal Capital Territory, Muhammad Bello who congratulated the young innovators on making the nation proud, assuring them that his government will continue to invest in entrepreneurship, skills and career development.

The Nigeria Youth Investment Fund has been described as the cornerstone and most ambitious intervention fund targeted at young people to become wealth creators. As precursors to the N75billion fund had been a slew of other youth-focused initiatives of the Ministry of Youth and Sports Development and that of Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development such as the N-Power that have engaged 500,000 young Nigerians in the last 5 years out of which 109,000 of the beneficiaries have become entrepreneurs. The Federal Government is targeting the first quarter of 2021 to absolve the next batch of 400,000 youths under the N-Power Programme, according to Aminu Nyako, Special Assistant to Minister of Humanitarian Affairs.

Some other youth empowerment initiatives domiciled with the Ministry of Youth and Sports are the partnership with Mastercard Foundation and Corporate Farmers which seeks to engage 50,000 young Nigerians in Sorghum farming. There is also a partnership with the IBM, a global technology giant to train 14,000 Nigerians in Digital Skills and Artificial Intelligence as well as the partnership the Minister, Sunday Dare brokered with Google to train over 20,000 youths across the country. Under the watch of the Minister, Africa Development Bank is also working in partnership with the Nigerian government to launch a special fund for youth.

Speaking at the event, Mr. Sunday Dare gave a panoramic view of the government investments in the development of young people as the future of the country. He noted that the recent youth-led #EndSARS protests across the country against Police brutality underscored the ability of the young people of Nigeria to demand accountability from leaders, most especially in matters that affect them.

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Government, the minister said, will continue to celebrate the energy and talents of Nigerian youth adding that the National Youth Day celebration provided the rare opportunity for national introspection and more meaning engagement.

“Against the backdrop of all our country has witnessed in the past three weeks, there can be no better time than now to celebrate our youth and validate their contributions to national economic development.

And indeed beyond the celebration of the potentials, ingenuity, talents, innovativeness and resourcefulness of our youth in Nigeria and across the world, this event, the Maiden edition of the National Youth Day offers us as a people the opportunity to reflect, take stock and chart a new youth action plan that tackles headlong the issues that confront our teeming youth population,” the Minister said.

On the current challenges of youth unemployment and shrinking opportunities for socio-economic mobility, Dare revealed that his Ministry, at a multilateral level, is working on a more structured and sustainable way in conjunction with the African Development Bank on a new focus and vision that will unearth and accelerate ingenuity among the young people of Nigeria.

“Let me start with a direct reference to the new focus and youth vision of the African Development Bank led by Nigeria’s Dr. Akinwumi Adesina that the establishment of Youth Entrepreneurship Investment Banks will help to fully unleash youth potentials through technology and entrepreneurship. This assertion made in September 2020 first validates the strength of our youth and secondly demands from government and the private sector direct investments in the youth population with a de-risking mentality.”

While alluding to the exploits and impact-creating talents of Nigerian young people at home and abroad, Dare said the success of one young person is an enabler and a source of inspiration for others.