Abuja – Youths in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) on Monday urged the Federal Government to strengthen the Youth Enterprise with Innovation in Nigeria (YouWin) programme for improvement empowerment of the people.
The youths who spoke to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja said that strengthening the programme would reduce youth unemployment in the country.
One of them, Mrs Grace Maduabuchi, told NAN that the YouWin initiative of the past administration produced some young entrepreneurs and helped small businesses to improve.
Maduabuchi said with YouWin, more people would be self-reliant and more Nigerians would be employed.
“The YouWin programme is capable of enabling small business owners to improve or run their businesses as well as create jobs for other unemployed youths.
“Again, the programme is unique in the sense that it does not require any difficult procedure for people to access the funds,’’ she said.
Another youth, Ifeanyi Okafor, said more awareness should be created on the various empowerment programmes of government, in the interest of potential beneficiaries.
Okafor said engagement of youths in Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) programmes would reduce social vices associated with idealness.
“ A lot of youths do not know where and how to access funds to start a business; so, with more awareness, Nigerians will know what to do.
“If Nigerians are able to access funds without bottlenecks, millions of unemployed youths, including graduates and illiterates, will be empowered in the country,’’ he said.
Mr Moses Ibanga, urged the government to identify Nigerians who were willing to engage in enterprise creation and development.
Ibanga said that youths should be supported to start small businesses after due entrepreneurship training, which should be monitored by the Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN).
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“That is the only way to provide employment in Nigeria, because no government in the world has been able to provide employment for its teeming populace without employing the services of MSMEs.
“It is only in entrepreneurship that you have abundant employment opportunities,’’ he said. (NAN)