5,200 youths get N1.62bn loans under FG’s Youth Investment Fund, as 25,000 others await approval

The Nigeria Youth Investment Fund (NYIF) of the Federal Government being operated by the Ministry of Youth and Sports Development has disbursed loans of N1.629bn to 5,200 youths while another set of 25,000 youths are on the waiting list for approval and disbursements of their loans.

This was contained in a statement made available to newsmen in Abuja on Sunday by the Director, Press and Public Relations of the Military, Mallam Mohammed Manga.

He explained that the information was contained in the latest update provided to the ministry by the NIRSAL Micro Finance Bank (NMFB) which disbursed the loans.

Manga said: “Total eligible applications approved stood at 6,054 out of which 5,200 disbursements were made, leaving the number of those that have been approved but yet to get disbursement, at 854. The number of unqualified applicants for the batch stood at 721.”

He explained that an advisory from the ministry revealed that some applications were turned down because the applicants did not provide valid or correct contact details for communication on further steps in the loan application; or had existing AGSMEIS or COVID-19 loan while some others were more than 35 years old, which put them beyond the age bracket for youth.”

According to him, other reasons “are that the applicants had poor credit rating or currently had a non-performing loan with some others failing to provide a valid BVN as well as incomplete or incorrect BVN.”

He reminded the beneficiaries and applicants that the monies being disbursed by the NYIF to the youth are not grants, but repayable loans.

He further added that another batch of 25,000 youths have been pre-qualified for training ahead of final clearance for disbursements while the ministry was in consultation with other partners to expand the loans disbursement platform so as to fast-track access to the fund.

According to him, “only N3 billion had been provided by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) out of the N12.5billion approved for the first tranche of the NYIF. So far, 54.6 % of the N3 billion had been disbursed.”

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