File: Youth Corp Members during garation

Oshogbo, May 9, 2018 (AltAfrika)-The Coordinator of the National Youth Service Corps in Osun State, Mr. Emmanuel Attah, has said the Federal Government has made plans for corps members with good business ideas to get loans of between N200,000 and N2m to start their businesses after the service year.

Attah stated that the loan, which would be given in collaboration with the Bank of Industry, the Central Bank of Nigeria, and Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria, would be made available to corps members after they might have undergone skill acquisition and entrepreneurial development programmes.

The coordinator said this during the skill acquisition and entrepreneurial development inter-platoon competition and exhibition at the NYSC Orientation Camp in Ede, Osun State on Tuesday.

Attah stated, “Interested corps members, who have undergone the SAED programme, will be given loans of between N200,000 and N2m after the service year. The business proposal will determine how much will be given to each applicant.

“The loan will be interest-free and the NYSC discharge certificates of interested corps members, who apply for the loans, will be used as the collateral. The discharge certificates will be subsequently returned to them after repayment of the loan, which has no time bound.

“The  SAED programme and supporting loan were put in place after the NYSC observed that youths, after the service year, always end up unemployed and roaming the streets looking for non-existing white collar jobs.

“The skill acquisition programme will empower corps members after the service year to be self-employed and also be employers of labour. This will also reduce their involvement in criminal activities.”

The Head of BoI in Osun State, Mr. Emmanuel Ojoowuro, said the loans that would be given to the corps members would be in form of business items financing for the applicants.

Ojoowuro explained that items and materials would be provided to the business of individual corps members and that the loan could be up to N2m or as low as N200,000, depending on the nature of the business to be established.

The BoI official said the SAED and the start-up loans given to corps members had been very successful with many positive developments recorded in the last three years.

The Head of SAED, Mrs. Olutayo Samuel, stated the skill acquisition programme had been running since March 2012, and that about 100,000 youths had benefited from the programme.

She said the SAED training was divided into two categories of in-camp training of 10 days and post-camp training, and that the trainers were earlier beneficiaries of the skill acquisition programme.

Guinness Nigeria Plc has announced that its Chief Executive Officer, Peter Ndegwa, will be stepping down at the end of the 2018 financial year, after three years in the role.

Ndegwa will be taking up a new role as the Managing Director, Continental Europe and Russia, a member of the Diageo Group, Guinness Nigeria’s parent company.

The company also confirmed that Baker Magunda, currently the Managing Director of Meta Abo Brewery in Ethiopia, would take over as the new CEO of Guinness Nigeria, following a period of transition.

A statement by the firm read in part, “Ndegwa has been at Guinness Nigeria for nearly three years and has overseen the recent transformation at the company, including the successful rights issue and implementation of the productivity programme. Recent third quarter financial performance has shown the improvement that these projects are delivering.

“Baker Magunda will join Guinness Nigeria from Diageo-owned Meta Abo Breweries in Ethiopia. Under Magunda’s tenure, Meta Abo has seen the launch of the Guinness brand in the country and a strong innovation pipeline of brands brought to the market. He has nearly 20 years’ experience in the consumer goods and alcohol industry. He has worked across in Uganda and Kenya, as well as Ethiopia and the Sudan.”

Speaking on the development, the Chairman, Guinness Nigeria Plc, Mr. Babatunde Savage, said, “I will like to thank Peter (Ndegwa) for his transformational work over the past few years; he has led the business through challenging times and taken us forward. It is great to see him move on within Diageo. I will also like to use this opportunity to welcome Baker to the role. I look forward to working with him.”