President Goodluck Jonathan on Monday in Abuja launched the $50 million Venture Capital Fund better known as the YouWin Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) growth fund.
The fund was launched by the Nigerian leader alongside the fourth round of the Youth Enterprise with Innovation in Nigeria (YouWin) programme at a colourful event staged at the Banquet Hall of the Presidential Villa.
The fourth edition is expected to support additional 1,500 entrepreneurs along with the SME-Growth fund, which is a private equity fund for entrepreneurs.
Speaking at the launch, Jonathan stated that the new enterprise fund would enable those who won previous grants from the YouWin programme to take their businesses to the next level.
Observing that judicious administration of the fund would require hard work on the side of government, he added that if government worked hard, it could attract more contributions from investors.
The President further pointed out that the new fund would be managed by independent fund managers alongside the government, stressing that “you will not need to know somebody to access it”.
While stressing that the selection of beneficiaries would be highly competitive and strictly based on merit, the president lauded the efforts of the Minister of Finance, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, whom he said, has so far successfully coordinated three batches of the YouWin programme.
Jonathan cited available records which indicate that a total of 22,000 jobs had been created by the first and second editions of YouWin. He expressed delight about this and hoped that with the launch of the fourth edition, the total number of jobs would increase to 44,000.
Earlier in the event, the President had inspected an exhibition by beneficiaries of the programme the sight of which got him happy, stressing that the quality of the products were of international standard. While disclosing YouWin as arguably among the finest initiatives of his administration, he expressed satisfaction with the level of response youths have accorded the programme.
Also speaking at the ceremony, Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister for the Economy, Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala disclosed that the disbursement of funds for the third phase of the programme would commence shortly as the hitches which had stalled it had been cleared.
The Minister asserted that another 1,500 entrepreneurs would be supported with grants between one million naira and 10 million naira to enable them improve or run their businesses, expanding them and creating more jobs.
source: dailypost.ng
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