The Lagos State government has started giving out loans to boost small-scale businesses and start-ups in all 57 local councils. Addressing youths, market women and stakeholders on the scheme floated by the state government at the Ibeju -Lekki local government development area (LCDA) secretariat, Chairman of Euroway Business Development Limited, Oye Akinsemoyin said the scheme being anchored by the Lagos State Government Trust Fund Empowerment Scheme, in collaboration with Euroway would empower of 10,000 youths with between 200 and 500 persons per LCDA.
He said the empowerment programme the first of its kind and would be replicated in all government councils in the state. He maintained that Governor Akinwunmi Ambode was poised to harness the abundant businesses potential to assist young entrepreneurs to their own start-up small-scale businesses, as they were the bedrock of any economy.
Akinsemoyin noted that with 22 million people in Lagos and with over 40 per cent of the youths without jobs, the programme would alleviate the unemployment challenges in the country.
He disclosed that the beneficiaries would receive a start-up loan of N55, OOO and a portable mobile machine that could be operated any time and anywhere.He said an additional N 10,000 would be given to them as working capital, while an account would be opened for the beneficiaries with N3,500 in a designated Micro-Finance Bank.
Akinsemoyin expressed hopes that the project would last into the future, adding that regular trainings, monitoring and support systems would help the beneficiaries to grow their micro businesses
Speaking to The Guardian, Sole Administrator of Lekki-Ibeju LCDA, Surakat Babatunde Idogun appreciated the state government effort to empower the youths, a development she noted, would help to reduce crimes, unemployment and youth restiveness in the state.
