The Ministry of Youth Sports Development has disclosed that it has disbursed the sum of N1,629,220,000.00 under the Nigeria Youth Investment Fund (NYIF) to 5,200 youths so far.

This was disclosed by the Ministry on Sunday in its recent loan update to the NIRSAL Micro Finance Bank (NMFB), citing that 25,000 youths would soon receive loans as soon as it receives approval.

Highlights of the update:

• Total eligible applications approved stood at 6,054 out of which the 5,200 disbursements were made, leaving the number of those that have been approved but yet to get disbursement, at 854.
• The number of unqualified applicants for the batch stood at 721.
• Some applications were turned down because they did not provide valid or correct contact details for communication on further steps in the loan application; or had existing AGSMEIS or COVID-19 Loan while some others were more than 35 years old.

The Ministry added that other reasons some applicants got rejected include poor credit rating or they currently had a non-performing loan with some others failing to provide a valid BVN as well as incomplete or incorrect BVN.

“Only N3 billion has been provided by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) out of the N12.5billion approved for the first tranche of the NYIF. So far, 54.6 % of the N3 billion has been disbursed,” they added.

What you should know

The Federal Government launched the N75 billion Nigerian Youth Investment Fund in October 2020, which was set up for investment in the innovative ideas, skills, and talents of Nigerian Youth.

The youth Minister said that the loan, provided under the NYIF, has an interest rate of 5% per annum and a tenor of 5 years with a moratorium of up to 12 months.