No fewer than 6, 500 persons in the North East were trained by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) under its Youths Innovative Entrepreneurship Development Programme (YIEDP) in the last two years.
The Managing Director, A and I Development Project, Alhaji Abubakar Gusau said that the five-year programme was targeting 7000 beneficiaries from Borno, Yobe, Bauchi, Gombe, Taraba and Adamawa states. He added that the programme had so far created more than 4, 000 direct and indirect jobs and offered business stimulation counselling to about 16, 600 retailers.
“ The training would provide timely and affordable credit to assist youths in implementing their business ideas.” It is designed towards unlocking of potentials, providing the mechanism of stimulating growth, reducing unemployment as well as addressing youth restiveness.
“ Despite the strangulating insurgency bedeviling the state, we were able to achieve about 93.3 per cent of our target on training, 64 percent on counseling, 69 per cent of business startup and expanded as well as 53 per cent jobs creation,” he said.