As part of effort to encourage the patronage of made-in-Nigeria good, the Director General, National Youth Service Corps (NYSC), Brigadier General Johnson Olawumi, has called on the Federal government to initiative policy that would make patronage of local goods compulsory.

Olawumi who stated this yesterday during the launch of the Youth Innovative Entrepreneurship Development Programme (YIEDP) in conjunction with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) at the CBN International Training Institute, Abuja, said a situation where government would spend money to training the corps members on skill acquisition and also empowerment them with loans only for them not to be able to meet up because their goods are not being patronize is not encouraging.

He said: “I commend the CBN on it policy on the use of forex which has encouraged local producers to work hard but it is painful, when the FG spent money in training the youth, especially the corps members on entrepreneurship and also give loans only for the corps members not to be able to meet up because their goods are not being patronized. FG should make policy to make the patronage of made-in-Nigeria goods compulsory.”

He stated further that YIEDP focuses on providing world class training and start-up capital to youth corps members who have indicated interest in skill acquisition and entrepreneurship, adding that this is designed to complement the scheme’s other interventions in funding corps member’s proposal under the NYSC SAED programme.

“The scheme has trained over 500,000 ex-corps members in various agro-based skills. Unfortunately not all these were empowered to start up the business as the challenges have always been inadequate access to fund. The stringent lending conditions of most financial institutions compound efforts being made by the scheme. However, with the new concept of YIEDP which has liberalised the lending terms will make corps members enjoy unhindered access to start up fund,” he said.

To access the fund, corps members are expected to undergo a world class entrepreneurship development training programme facilitated by the CBN and Heritage Bank, submit online a bankable business plan as well as provide a reliable guarantor while the certificate of national service of the applicant will serve as collateral for beneficiaries.

However, CBN Governor, Dr. Godwin Emefiele, said the programme targets 10,000 youths and that the bank is ready to give as much as N10 million to corps members and ex-corps members that are not more than five years post-service experience.