Graduate Entrepreneurs at Bank of Industry

Graduate Entrepreneurship Fund (GEF) Call for Entries

The Graduate Entrepreneurship Fund (GEF) is a special N2 billion empowerment programme for serving members of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) which was launched on October 5, 2015. This novel schemes which is a joint initiative of the Bank of Industry (BOI) and the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC), has the following objectives:

• Encourage graduates of tertiary institutions currently undergoing the compulsory one-year NYSC programme, to venture into business and become employers of labour rather than job seekers.
• Address the entrepreneurship capacity gap o the NYSC members who are expected to produce bankable business plans after the three-day capacity building programme.
• Deepen financial inclusion by de-risking the NYSC members and making them eligible for concessional loans ranging between N500,000 and N2 million to be provided by BOI
• Ensure sustainability of the businesses of the eventual loan beneficiaries through effective monitoring by the NYSC Directorate and BOI.

The GEF Programme comprises the following:

• Online Business Plan Competition to select the most promising real sector business ideas, Selection/screening of participants shall be done via the GEF online application portal.
• Three days intensive entrepreneurship capacity building programme
• Loan amount of up to N2 million to be provided to each successful participant with bankable business plans within BOI's 35 SME clusters (list at BOI’s website: www.boi.ng) at an interest rate of 9% per annum, with tenors ranging from 3-5 years inclusive of 6 - 12 months moratorium period.

The capacity building programme is scheduled to hold simultaneously at the following venues:

Geo-Political Zone/State - NYSC Camp Location

South-South
Former Martins TIC,
Issele-Uku,
Aniocha North L.G.A,
Delta State.

South-East
Umunna,
Bende L.G.A,
Abia State.

South-West
Aisu College Hospital Road,
Ede,
Osun State.

North-East
Government College,
Jalingo,
Taraba State.

North-Central
Mangu,
Plateau State.

North-West
Main Road,
Katsina,
Katsina State.

Lagos
Iyana Ipaja,
Agege,
Lagos State.

NOTE: The Entrepreneurship Capacity Building Programme will take place at the above stated centres between 18th - 20th November, 2015. Interested serving NYSC members are hereby requested to apply online immediately