By Oluwafunke Ishola
Lagos – The Bank of Industry (BoI) has denied any involvement in a purported maize farming programme for youths or partnership with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) on such a programme.
Mrs Hadiza Olaosebikan, the Corporate Communication Director of BoI, made the denial in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria on Tuesday.
NAN reports that some SMS messages and social media broadcast are circulating stories about a maize farming programme being organised by the CBN and BoI to empower youths.
According to the message, successful applicants will be assisted with land, mechanised farming tools, maize seedlings and a loan of N4.5 million with repayment duration of five years.
The message said that applicants should deposit N10,000 into an account (names withheld) and successful applicants would participate in a six-week capacity building programme to be facilitated by two agencies.
The message listed the two facilitating agencies as the Enterprise Development Centre (EDC) and German Agency for International Cooperation (GIZ).
Olaosebikan advised members of the public to be wary of the programme because the BoI would never demand for a fee to train unemployed youths in the country.
“BoI will never request money from applicants for programme. Moreso, we are not aware of the programme nor plan any capacity building of such nature,” she said.
Olaosebikan advised the public to conduct diligent search about genuineness of empowerment programmes before enrolling.
She added that the bank was not aware of the programme to be facilitated by EDC and GIZ.
She said that dubious persons prey on ignorance of members of the public.
Mrs Lola Falokun, Senior Administrative Officer, EDC, said that the centre had no knowledge of the programme nor was it facilitating maize farming programme for BoI and CBN.