To commemorate the 2022 International Youths Day, five rural entrepreneurs out of the over 200 applicants have received a debut grant from Youth Builders Initiative (YBI) pilot scheme under its Economic Stimulus for Rural Entrepreneurs (ESREN) programme.
The programme which began in April 2022 involved some rigorous processes that finally saw three winners while two other recipients received consolation prizes.
The executive director of Youth Builders Initiative (YBI), Mr Audu Kadiri explained that both categories of grant beneficiaries went through rigorous selection process which includes application, shortlisting, entrepreneurship training, business plan submission, and pitching before the final selection and disbursement.
Speaking on the goal of the programme, Kadiri said ESREN is a social enterprise development scheme targeted at the rural and semi-urban settlements to curb the menace of rural-urban migration by young people and decongest cities in Nigeria.
He stressed that the programme will also help to enhance business acumen and improve the standards of living of rural settlers, who are into small and medium-scale businesses.
He added that rural-urban migration is a common phenomenon that has continued to deplete the rural population and at the same time causing population explosion and the consequent congestion in Nigerian cities such as Lagos, Abuja, Kano, Benin City, Enugu, Aba, amongst others.
He said that “Although young people, especially, those without skillset or basic level of education, migrate from rural settlements to cities for diverse reasons, yet most of them would remain in the village, if they are certain, staying in the village would guarantee better economic conditions and allay the fear of the preponderance of the unemployment that characterizes the cities.”
He said young rural dwellers are lured to the luxury of the civilization in the city, stick out their necks in an attempt to eke out a living, and in the end, most of them end up in a plethora of social vices such as gangsterism, yahoo-yahoo, armed robbery, ritualism, kidnapping, drug peddling, car snatching, pick-pocketing, political thuggery, hired assassination, Boko Haram, banditry, amongst others, thereby constituting nuisance and economic sabotage that culminate in the lingering economic quagmire in the country.
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