The National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) on Monday said it partnered some financial institutions in the country to provide soft loans for corps members to start business.
The Director-General of the corps, Brig. Gen. Suleiman Kazaure, told newsmen on the sideline of his visit to the 2017 NYSC Batch B Stream I Corps members at Wamakko Orientation Camp in Sokoto that the loan would help the young corps members.
Kazaure said “we introduced skills acquisition programmes to improve the capacity
of corps members and to key into Federal Government’s programmes of diversifying the country’s economy.
“We thought that our corps members need soft loans to enable them to start a business and earn a living during and after their service year.
“NYSC, therefore, entered into partnership with some financial institutions like Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Heritage Bank and Bank of Industry to secure loans for corps members at single digit interest rate.”
The NYSC boss said the loans were for corps members to start small scale enterprises from the grassroots and practically expand the knowledge gained during their skills acquisition programme in the service year.
Kazaure added that NYSC would establish a skills acquisition centre in each of the six geopolitical zones in the country, with the aim of ensuring that corps members got the skills they required.
He commended the Sokoto State Government for providing peaceful atmosphere for members serving in the state and urged them to reciprocate the gesture.
The NYSC Coordinator in Sokoto State, Alhaji Musa Abubakar, thanked Kazaure
for the visit to the camp and commended the corps members for maintaining discipline.