The federal government has provided N2.04 billion to at least 7,057 youths in the country through the Nigeria Youth Investment Fund (NYIF), a programme under the Ministry of Youths and Sports Development.

This was revealed in a statement released by the Central Bank of Nigeria following the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting on Tuesday.

This was revealed in a communiqué released by the Central Bank of Nigeria following the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting on Tuesday.

According to the CBN, 4,411 of the 7,057 recipients were individuals, while 2,646 were Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) from different sectors of the economy.

As a result, the CBN has urged the country’s youths to lay down their weapons and take advantage of its various intervention programmes put in place to provide succour to households and SMEs.\

Some of the credit facility touted includes Anchor Borrowers’ Programme, Agribusiness Small and Medium Enterprise Investment Scheme (AGSMEIS)

“Intervention facilities under the Anchor Borrowers were N631.4 billion granted to 3,107,949 smallholder farmers cultivating 3.8 million of land hectares; for the AGSMEIS, N111.7 billion to 29,026 beneficiaries,” the statement said.

“For the Creative Industry Financing Initiative, the CBN has disbursed N3.19 billion to 341 beneficiaries across movie production, movie distribution, and music and software development,”

The communiqué also showed that through the confidential credit facility, N253.4 billion has been given to 548,345 beneficiaries – comprising 470,969 households and 77,376 SMEs.

“While under the N1 trillion real sector intervention, N856.3 billion had been disbursed for 233 real sector projects, of which 77 are in light manufacturing, 36 in agro-based industry, 30 in services, and 11 in mining,” the statement noted.