BOI, Others To Raise One Million Entrepreneurs

The Bank of Industry, First Bank of Nigeria Limited and the Afterschool Graduate Development Centre have announced plans to raise one million new entrepreneurs in the country in order to address the high level of unemployment in Nigeria through entrepreneurship development.

A statement from the BoI quoted the Acting Managing Director, Waheed Olagunju, as saying that there was an urgent need to bring down the level of unemployment in the country, maintaining that the nation would be sitting on a time bomb of youth restiveness if nothing is done in the next two to three years to address the scourge.

Olagunju was said this during a courtesy visit by the Chairman, Board of Directors, First Bank of Nigeria Limited, Mrs. Ibukun Awosika,  that there was a need for high number of entrepreneurs.

“We cannot solve the high level of unemployment in this country except we increase the number of entrepreneurs,” he stated.

According to Olagunju, the BoI  had just launched its youth empowerment programme and is expected to turn out about 1200 entrepreneurs adding that Nigeria needs more than that number to create the proportionate employment opportunities for its teeming unemployed youths.

He said, “Under our Youth Empowerment Scheme programme, we are expecting 10,000 applicants. We are also planning to graduate about 1200 applicants yearly.

“We know this cannot go a long way considering the size of the country and this is why we are looking forward to collaborating with development partners in this country to get a high number of entrepreneurs.

“To tackle the unemployment situation in this country, we need to bring the unemployment rate to single digit which means we ought to have created about 15 million new jobs in the country.  If we do not act fast in the next two to three years, we will have boys on the street coming to attack us.”