Ajuwaya! If you could recall, on October 5, 2015, The Graduate Entrepreneurship Fund (GEF) was launched.
The Graduate Entrepreneurship Fund (GEF) is a special N2 billion empowerment programme for serving members of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC). This novel schemes which is a joint initiative of the Bank of Industry (BOI) and the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC), was aimed at the following objectives:
To encourage graduates of tertiary institutions currently undergoing the compulsory one-year NYSC programme, to venture into business and become employers of labour rather than job seekers.
To address the entrepreneurship capacity gap o the NYSC members who are expected to produce bankable business plans after a three-day capacity building programme
To deepen financial inclusion by de-risking the NYSC members and making them eligible for concessional loans ranging between N500,000 and N2 million to be provided by BOI
To ensure sustainability of the businesses of the eventual loan beneficiaries through effective monitoring by the NYSC Directorate and BOI
The GEF Programme comprises the following activities:
Online Business Plan Competition to select the most promising real sector business ideas,
Selection/screening of participants per above shall be done via the GEF online application portal.
Three days intensive entrepreneurship capacity building programme
Loan amount of up to N2 million to be provided to each successful participant with bankable business plans within BOI’s 35 SME clusters (list at BOI’s website: www.boi.ng) at an interest rate of 9% per annum, with tenors ranging from 3-5 years inclusive of 6 – 12 months moratorium period.
The capacity building programme is scheduled to hold simultaneously at the following venues:
| S/N | Geo-Political Zone | NYSC Camp Location |
| 1 | South South | Former Martins TIC, Issele-Uku, Aniocha North L.G.A, Delta State. |
| 2 | South East | Umunna, Bende L.G.A, Abia State. |
| 3 | South West | Aisu College Hospital Road, Ede, Osun State. |
| 4 | North East | Government College, Jalingo, Taraba State. |
| 5 | North Central | Mangu, Plateau State. |
| 6 | North West | Main Road, Katsina, Katsina State. |
| 7 | Lagos | Iyana Ipaja, Agege, Lagos State. |
NOTE: The Entrepreneurship Capacity Building Programme will take place at the above stated centres between 18th – 20th November, 2015.
Interested serving NYSC members are hereby requested to apply online immediately through http://www.boi.ng/gef/
[plulz_social_like width="350" send="false" font="arial" action="like" layout="standard" faces="false" ]Application Closing Date
3rd November, 2015.