The Graduate Entrepreneurship Fund (GEF) programme is a special scheme to encourage and promote entrepreneurship among serving members of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC). The scheme provides loans of up to N2.0 million at 0% interest rate to support enterprises and potentially viable business ideas.
This novel scheme, 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 of 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: boi.ng/gef
- Three days intensive entrepreneurship capacity building programme.
- Loan amounts of up to N2.0 million to be provided to each successful participant with bankable business plans within BOI’s 35 SME clusters (list at BOI’s website: 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:
| S/N | Geo-Political Zone | NYSC Camp Location |
| 1 | South-South | Former Martins TTC, Issele-Uku, Aniocha North L.G.A, Delta State. |
| 2 | South-East | Umunna, Bende L.G.A, Abia State. |
| 3 | South-West | Aisu College Hospital Road, Ede North L.G.A, Ede, Osun State. |
| 4 | North-East | Government College, Jalingo, Jalingo L.G.A, Taraba State. |
| 5 | North-Central | Mangu, Mangu L.G.A, Plateau State. |
| 6 | North-West | Mani Road, Katsina, Katsina State. |
| 7 | Lagos | Iyana Ipaja, Agege, Lagos State. |
For More Information:
Visit the Official Webpage of the Graduate Entrepreneurship Fund (GEF) Programme 2018