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 Conviction precedes perfection
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Federal Government yesterday disclosed that the Youth Enterprise With Innovation in Nigeria (YOUWiN) programme has so far created over 27,000 jobs.
It said that while the first phase of YouWiN created 22,000 jobs, the second phase which focused on women, created 5,000 jobs.
It further noted that as at 2011 when the present administration came into office, the total numbers of unemployment in the country stood at 35 per cent, a figure that as unacceptable hence the decision to. launched a number of initiatives including YOUWiN to address the job gaps.
President Goodluck Jonathan made the disclosure at the launching of the 3rd edition of the Programme at the presidential Villa, Abuja.
He noted that the Programme at the beginning targeted the creation of over 80,000 jobs but with its success in the short time the target has increased, adding that his administration’s desire was to create jobs for the Nigeria’s vibrant youths.
He said, “Nigeria is one of those countries that have a very big percentage of young, not just young but vibrant and enterprising young people.
“When we came into office in 2011, the total numbers of unemployment in the country stood at 35% and we considered that as unacceptable and in response! we launched a number of initiatives which included the YOUWiN to provide jobs for our citizens.
“The YOUWiN Programme is unique in the sense that it depends on Nigerian youths to create jobs for other Nigerian youths.
“The Programme supports enterprising young men and women to establish their own businesses that will enable them employ others”, he said.
President Jonathan said further, “I am happy to report that so far, over 26,000 direct jobs have been created across our six geo-political zones. This includes 22,000 from the YouWiN phase 1 and over 5000 from YouWiN, phase 2.
“Let me restate that I believe strongly in the youth of this great country, they are not only vibrant, they are intelligent and hard working”
President Jonathan commended the success rate even as he also commended the quality of products exhibited at the event, adding that products emanating from the beneficiaries can compete favourably with products from anywhere in the world.
He added that this was a clear attestation that Nigeria is gradually creating a strong middle class.
“They are quite encouraging and confirmed that Nigeria has great youth entrepreneurs from interior decoration, through to chemical engineering, ICT and electrical engineering, we are all fascinated and we believe that Nigerian youths are taking this country to a great height.
“The products and services on display here can compete with the best in the world, will not only support our domestic needs but they are also potentially export revenue drive for this country”, he said.
The President expressed delight that the beneficiaries have testified that they received the awards without any outside influence assuring that the project will continue to maintain its objective approach in selecting beneficiaries, adding that “there will be no fatherism in the project”
He disclosed that the 3rd phase of the project will further provide jobs for another 3,600 young Nigerian entrepreneurs and tens of thousand jobs.
The President also used the opportunity to appeal to multi national companies operating in Nigeria and banks as well as other related institutions to assist government in providing the much needed funds for the enterprising youths.
Earlier in her remarks, the Coordinating Minister of the Economy and Minister of Finance, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala said, the two stage online application led to the training of 6,000 young Nigerians in business plan development and small business management.
She said the selection of 1,200 winners each time who received grants of between N1 million and N10 million to implement their business plan in addition to further training and mentoring. She said they are further linked up with other business resources including top up funding from commercial resources.
Okonjo-Iweala said past winners have already demonstrated the success of the programme as exemplified in the exhibition at the event. “They have proven that given the right environment and support they can produce goods and offer services that match or even exceed the quality of those we go broad to buy”.
The Minister reiterated government’s goal, which is to implement YouWin as a programme that is truly responsive to the needs of Nigerians.
She said almost all the 1,200 winners in the second edition tagged YouWin Women, have collected the first tranche of their parts grants awards.
She said the 1,200 YouWin Women are made up of 227 women from North Central, 167 from North East, 157 from North West, 175 South East, 198 from South South and 292 from South West zones.
She said the sector most represented among the winners is agriculture which accounts for 24.8 per cent awardees, followed by food and restaurant related business is 12.9 per cent while education is 11.9 per cent.
She said based on requests from those that did not win awards, the YouWin team put together access to business finance workshops in seven different locations of the country which exposed participants to other sources of business financing and how to apply for such opportunities.
She said several trainees have written feedbacks that though they did not benefit from YouWin grants, the training and knowledge gained have helped them to either enlarged their businesses or create new ones thereby creating jobs for other Nigerians.
Minister of Communication Technology, Mrs. Omobola Johnson, said with the launch by the President, the website would be made open to applicants.
She said submission of application and registration is completely automated and applicants are expected to submit proposals that are innovative, visible, practicable and with potentials for job creation.
Johnson also disclosed that all previous YouWiN awardees were provided free functional website by her Ministry.
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