The African Development Bank (AfDB) has approved a $100 million loan to enhance financial access for youth and women-led small and medium enterprises (SMEs) through Nigeria’s Youth Entrepreneurship Investment Bank (YEIB).
This ground-breaking initiative is designed to stimulate economic growth and job creation by bringing together key financial and non-financial stakeholders to support young entrepreneurs.
As a coordinating body, the Bank is partnering with anchor investors such as the Federal Government of Nigeria (via the Ministry of Finance Incorporated), the Nigeria Sovereign Investment Authority (NSIA), and the Development Bank of Nigeria (DBN). The AfDB’s $100 million investment will be supplemented by $25 million from DBN and $5 million from NSIA.
The YEIB initiative will establish an Investment Management Company to manage three key vehicles: the Equity Investment Fund (EIF), Ecosystem Development Fund (EDF), and Credit Guarantee Facility (CGF).
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These funds are geared towards supporting youth and women-led businesses by providing investment capital, grants for business development, and credit risk mitigation.
The project is expected to create over 161,000 direct jobs, with 40% allocated to women, and generate 1.4 million indirect jobs, 35% of which will be for women. Additionally, it will support more than 38,000 youth-led enterprises with both financial and non-financial services.
AfDB’s Nigeria Director General, Dr. Abdul Kamara, described the initiative as transformative, saying it will address youth unemployment and gender inequality. Similarly, Ahmed Attout, Director of the Financial Sector Development Department, noted that YEIB represents a shift towards systemic entrepreneurship solutions, positioning Nigerian youth as a key investment asset.
Following the Nigeria YEIB project, similar efforts are being rolled out across Africa, with projects in Liberia and Ethiopia already receiving significant funding from the AfDB.
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