Heritage Bank empowers youths on SMEs ownership
Heritage Bank has strengthened its partnership with the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN in the N3 billion Youth Innovative Entrepreneurship Development Programme, YIEDP aimed at empowering young graduates.
The bank had recently kicked off a phase of the initiative with the invitation of over 1500 applicants for a training workshop.
This according to the bank’s Divisional Head, Corporate Communications, Olusola Longe-Okenimkpe, followed the inauguration of the initiative by the CBN and the subsequent launch of a business application portal by Heritage Bank in March this year, with no fewer than 4000 applications received.
Of the number, 1,547 candidates, representing the first batch of possible beneficiaries of soft loans for their business ideas, have been shortlisted to report for a 3-day business development training workshop, which will be conducted across CBN Enterprise Development Centres in the six geopolitical zones.
The statement from Longe-Okenimkpe announced that the shortlisted candidates will be contacted via SMS and Email on the details and modalities of the CBN-EDC training.
After the training workshop, which is to herald the third phase of the programme, each participant will be required to write a comprehensive and viable business plan, submit on the application portal for the Business Review Committee to screen, review and select the eligible and viable business for YIEDP funding.
Commenting on the development, the Managing Director of the bank, Mr. Ife Sekibo restated that the aim of the bank of being in the forefront of youth empowerment was to emancipate the latent entrepreneurial spirit in the teeming youths, by providing adequate and affordable loans to execute their business ideas and, hopefully, migrate them to successful Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs).
He noted that this was also to provide the mechanism of stimulating growth, reducing unemployment as well as addressing youth restiveness in the economy.
Sekibo added that “the bank’s passionate interest in the programme also arises from the fact that the initiative aligns very much with the vision of the bank, which is to help partners create, preserve and transfer wealth across generations.”
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