Yero wants special fund for youth entrepreneurs

From Femi Oyelola, Kaduna

Kaduna State Governor Mukhtar Ramalan Yero has called for establishment of a special fund to provide finance for business models designed by young people in the country.

In a press release made available to our correspondent in Kaduna by DG Medial and Publicity, Ahmed Maiyaki, stated that Governor Yero made call at a summit organised by the Nigerian Young Professionals Forum in New York, United States of America at the weekend, saying the future of the country belongs to the youth and it has become necessary in helping them actualise their dreams.

“The most important asset of young professionals are their ideas, majority of young people have no sufficient assets needed as collateral for loans. This is a major obstacle in exploiting their capabilities in terms of establishing private firms. This may require a special approach in providing access to finance that specifically target young professionals seeking to do viable businesses.

“Paper qualification alone can no longer sustain our economy; in addition our people must possess some form of skills to sufficiently fit into the requirements of modern economic environment. This challenge has aggravated the high rate of unemployment in our country because the economy now requires functional education not just paper qualification.

“Consequently, we must direct our attention to reviewing the present education policy, in order to incubate a younger population with technical expertise to drive the economy. We must de-emphasise paper qualification and concentrate on imbuing expertise in our people. It is incontrovertible that no nation has ever grown beyond the physical and intellectual capacity of its workforce. Nigeria cannot afford to lag behind in a World that is on the fast lane of technology advancement.”