President Goodluck Jonathan has assured business owners who are victims of insurgency in different parts of the country that is administration is ready to help rebuild their businesses.
Jonathan made the promise at the presidential launch of the fourth edition of Youth Enterprise With Innovation in Nigeria and the YouWin! SME Growth Fund held at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
The president said such people would be assisted through the Victims Support Fund established for that purpose.
He was reacting to an appeal for assistance made by a female beneficiary of the programme who said all her investment in agro-allied services had been destroyed by insurgents.
“All of you from the North East whose businesses were destroyed by militancy or by the excesses of Boko Haram, will be built back through the Victim Support Fund,” Jonathan said.
The President expressed delight about the success of the YouWin! Programme which he said was not only creating jobs but also producing future leaders.
Saying he believed in Nigerian youths, Jonathan said beneficiaries who have created about 22,000 jobs across the country had not disappointed him.
He said because of his belief in the fact that there could be no economic growth without jobs, his administration had continually made job creation a core component of its transformation agenda.
He described YouWin as one of the finest programmes of this administration.
Earlier, the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, said at the end of YouWin 4, about 5,000 youths would have benefitted.
She regretted that despite its success story, insecurity in parts of the country had led to loss of jobs.
She said some YouWin winners had to leave their jobs and run away because of insurgency.
The minister however told those under the category that the President had promised that he would not abandon them.
Okonjo-Iweala also noted that the programme had not be all sweet because six awardees had died since they were selected.