Norrenberger has launched a N500 million Entrepreneurship Fund for youth corps members across Nigeria.
The launch of the Fund which took place Thursday in Abuja is part of the company’s Corporate Social Responsibility meant to empower young Nigerians.
The Fund is targeted at about 5,000 youth corps members that will go through a stringent process before they can access the fund.
The company’s Managing Director/Chief Executive, Mr. Anthony Edeh, said the facility is targeted at young entrepreneurs across the country.
Speaking at the launch of the Norrenberger Entrepreneurship Fund Symposium with the theme: “Investing in Nigerian Youth to Drive Entrepreneurship: Opportunities and Challenges,” he explained that the funding was a grant that is expected to benefit 5,000 members of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) in 2023 and subsequent years.
He told THISDAY, “We envisage that in five years we would have impacted one million Nigerian youths and we would have created about 10 million jobs.”
However, he stressed that funding was not the only major challenge faced by budding entrepreneurs.
He said, “I think there needs to be some level of knowledge impact and skills acquisition for these young entrepreneurs.
“If you look at the failures of entrepreneurs in Nigeria every year, six out of 10 entrepreneurs must fail and 40 per cent of them fail because of lack of capital. Another 40 per cent fail because of a lack of knowledge and skills to push forward their ideas.
“So, what we are doing is that apart from creating capital, we are also creating an enabling environment that would allow these individuals to gain the kinds of skills that they need to run their business.”
Chairman, Norrenberger, Mr. Ibrahim Aliyu Bala, said the overall objective of the intervention is towards wealth creation for youths.
He said oftentimes, young people emerge with lofty ideas but lack the support needed to actualise their dreams.
He said, “It is difficult when you come out with so much and no money to actualise your ideas.”
He further explained that the grant was only part of the company’s Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) programme to society.
