Access Bank Plc has reiterated its commitment to providing finance and mentorship to young entrepreneurs with a view to making them self-reliant and employment creators.
The bank’s Regional Sales Director, North Central, Mr. Adebanji Jimoh, said the institution realises the role that young people play in the community and nation at large adding that it is committed to supporting their aspirations.
Speaking during the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC)/Access Bank Accesspreneur competition in Abuja, where cheques valued at about N2.9 million were presented by the bank to beneficiaries, he said, “We believe that the youths represent the future and hope of our nation and we will do all we can to support their innovative ideas.”
Jimoh said the partnership with the NYSC was in line with the bank’s sustainability ethos of improving lives and supporting the development and growth of its host community.
He said the partnership would help facilitate the training and mentoring of Nigerian youths in skill acquisition and entrepreneurship development for self-reliance.
He said, “We are constantly here with every batch of the NYSC to support great ideas as we are seeing today. Research has shown that lack of access to finance is one of the major reasons why businesses particularly start ups fail.
“We have decided to solve this problem by supporting some young entrepreneurs here today with finance to find their business ideas through the Access Bank All for One scheme.”
According to him, the entrepreneurship initiative is a brainchild of the Access Bank All for One scheme which is aimed at providing startup funds for corp members who are entrepreneurs, create new opportunities for them as well as provide them with mentorship to help their business to scale.
The Access bank director said, “We hope that through these financial support and mentorship programme, the winners and beneficiaries of this Accesspreneurship competition can run profitable businesses through the implementation of their innovative ideas, positively impacting lives and ultimately the economy.”
He also pointed out that the empowerment programme by the bank was being carried out in the six geo-political zones across the country.
The beneficiaries however, expressed gratitude to the bank and promised to utilise the empowerment in a positive way that will contribute to development of the economy through job creation for other youths.
Speaking at the occasion, Director General, National Youth Service Corps (NYSC), Brigadier General Shuaibu Ibrahim, said the corps was particularly happy to have a veritable partner in the bank to help empower corp members so they could go into the wider world without looking for jobs.
Represented by the NYSC Director, Skills Acquisition and Entrepreneurship Development (SAED), Mr. Hilary Nasamu, Ibrahim said the initiative will help them to become self employed and generators of wealth and employment for other people.
He charged the beneficiaries not to waste the opportunity to excel through the bank’s intervention.
