Federal Government Disqualifies 1,003 Nigerians From N12.5bn Youth Investment Fund

The Ministry of Sport and Youth Development says a total of 1,003 Nigerians who applied for the Nigeria Youths Investment Funds (NYIF) have been disqualified.

The Minister, Sunday Dare, disclosed this during a press briefing at the State House in Abuja, where he noted that 7,000 out of 3.3 million applications were approved.

Dare, who did not give further explanations as to why the remaining of the applicants were not approved for the funds, said 282 applicants were disqualified while 721 were unqualified.

The total figure totaled 1,003.

The Minister also noted that 6,050 applicants qualified for the NYIF while funds were disbursed to a total of 5,285 applicants.

Dare, however explained that those who qualified for the funds but did not receive monies were due to reasons including a “wrong Biometric Verification Number (BVN) and the inability to pay into some accounts.

“Some of our youths rejected the loans; some said they are not going to pay interest; others said they don’t need it,” the minister stated.

He added that those who benefited from the scheme got no fewer than N1.5m to N3m.

The minister said he resorted to pasting the names of those that had received the funds, on the internet after he got several complains that people were not benefitting from the scheme.

“We decided that we are going to be evidence-based, and I spend a lot of time on the social media, and I saw the same pattern where people benefit from government policies and don’t say a word about it”.

“There has been no country that has solved it’s youth unemployment problem without a deliberate policy of turning its youths into entrepreneur,” he added.

The NYIF is implemented by the Youth Ministry in partnership with the Central Bank of Nigeria and the Ministry of Finance. The fund is disbursed through NIRSAL Microfinance Bank (NMFB).

The NYIF aims to financially empower Nigeria youth to generate at least 500,000 jobs between 2020 and 2023.