CBN to give N3m each to eligible youth on empowerment programme

Federal Government of Nigeria has, as part of its mission to create sustainable wealth, made Heritage Bank to collaborate with the CBN and NYSC bring you Youth Innovative Entrepreneurship Development Programme. Starting March 15th, 2016. To register, click HERE
Abuja – Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) is to give three million naira each to empower eligible youths under the Youth Initiative Empowerment Development Programme (YIEDP), the Governor, Mr Godwin Emefiele, has said. Emefiele made the disclosure at the launch of YIEDP in Abuja on Tuesday. He said “the programme is open to youths who are either serving in the National Youth Service Corps or those who have not spent more than five years post NYSC service. “Credit line will be made available up to three million naira to each eligible youth, thereby fixing the problem of inadequate finance often encountered by business start-ups. “And receptions that utilise the funds properly can be encouraged to migrate to the other CBN interventions wherein they access more funds.’’ Emefiele said that N210 billion had been set aside for the programme and added that the collateral for accessing the fund was simple. “It will include assets, such as academic and NYSC certificates, third party guarantees and other movable assets. “This programmes will be an equal opportunity programme across gender and geo-political zones and we have developed a robust operational framework to deliver a bias-free per-qualification and selection process.’’ He said that CBN was targeting 10,000 youths with the aim of creating one million direct jobs in productive activities within the next four years. According to Emefiele, the National Bureau of Statistics says that there are over 36.3million youths in Nigeria’s labour force out of whom 13.6 million are either underemployed or unemployed. He noted that many talented youth in the country were constrained by seed funding which was very scarce. He explained that to address the situation, CBN in collaboration with NYSC came up with the initiative. The CBN governor commended the efforts of the Director-General of NYSC, Brig Gen Johnson Olawumi, and Mr Akinsola Akinfemiwa, Chairman, Heritage Bank for their commitment to the programme. Also, the NYSC director-general said YIEDP focused at providing world class training and start- up capital to corps members who had indicated interest in Skill Acquisition and Entrepreneurship (SAED). Olawunmi said the initiative was designed to complement the other interventions in funding corps members’ proposals under the NYSC SAED programme. He explained that since the inception of SAED, the NYSC scheme had trained over 500,000 ex-corps members in various agro-based skills but not all were empowered due to inadequate funds. He noted that under the new concept of YIEDP which had liberalised the lending terms, corps member entrepreneurs would enjoy unhindered access to start-up funds. He explained that corps members who intended to access the fund were expected to undergo a world class entrepreneurship development training facilitated by CBN and heritage bank. “ They will submit electronically, a bankable business plans as well as provide a reliable guarantor and their NYSC certificates will serve as collateral for beneficiaries,’’ he said. He admonished serving corps members to take advantage of the opportunity by coming up with creative ideas and bankable business plans which could make them access the fund. In his remark, the Chairman of Heritage Bank Akinfemiwa, said the major partners to the programme were NYSC members and urged them to strive to be employers of labour and not job seekers. Akinfemiwa also urged the youths to generate good ideas as it was the only way to ensure that the money that would be given to them was properly used.

Rivers Re-Run: See What Happened to Nigerian Corpers after Working During the Election (Photos)

adhoc staff fared after the rigorous conduct of elections in the turbulent Rivers state.


The tired youth corpers sleeping at awkard positions

After the National and State House of Assembly rerun elections in Rivers state which was trailed by series of killings and attacks yesterday, the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) members who partook in the polling exercise were all worn out.

The Corps members were seen sleeping both on the floor and benches last night at a secure location as citizens await the final collated results by INEC.

Unconfirmed reports have it that some of the corpers were harmed due to electoral violence at their polling units.

Dear parents, could your child have done better in the just concluded exams.

Nothing is more painful for a parent than seeing their child come home from an exam with a look of defeat, knowing that the exam was a disaster. Or when your kid brings back his report card and doesn’t have the pride to show you the results of the term’s work. Well, another term just ended, could your child have done better?
There are no secrets to success. It is the result of preparation, hard work, and learning from failure - Colin Powell
When you go through your children’s reports the questions that should be on your mind are, could your child have done better? What would be required for your child to do better? If you needed the help of an expert to help your children reach his full potential or perhaps transcend his potential, would you invest in getting such an expert?
Without denying the fact that children need time to play there is a great need for consistency in their learning especially if you want them to be distinguished among their peers. Holidays are awesome for kids to rest and relax, but for the ones who are performing below their own potential, it is certainly the time to have them catch up and exceed all expectations. There is nothing wrong in teaching kids the importance of consistent hard work while letting them enjoy breaks and fun times daily instead of across a long period
Well how do you do this??

Photos: Nigerian student assaulted by a white man as he was being booted out from Donald Trump rally

A Nigerian East Carolina University student, Adedayo Adeniyi was verbally and physically assaulted by a white man at a Donald Trump rally last Wednesday after he was targeted and thrown out for being black, New York Daily News, reports
20-year-old Adeniyi decided to attend the Donald Trump rally in Fayetteville, N.C. not as a protester or demonstrator, but out of curiosity.
"I was there just to watch and experience the surreal moment of someone like Trump running for president and speaking to thousands of people," he told the Daily News.
Without saying a single word during the entire event, Adeniyi was randomly targeted and thrown out of the event by police as seen and heard on video he recorded.
"At first I refused to leave because it was all just a product of being black at a Trump rally. Basically in that environment I'm guilty by association. But common sense told me to just listen to the cops and move along," Adeniyi recalled.
On his cellphone video Adeniyi, being told he has to leave, can be heard saying:
"Whoa. Whoa. Whoa. That's not me, that's them. I don't even know them. What? I don't even know them. I don't even know them"
The visibly shocked student reluctantly complied and was escorted down the stairs by the police.
"What happened next caused me to lose faith in America. The man at the end of the video is a moment I'll never forget," said Adeniyi.
One of Trump's supporters, a middle aged white man, looked him directly in the face and said, "F--k you, F--k you," right before slapping Adeniyi in the face.
"The hate in his eyes. The words. The hate in those words. The slap. It was disgusting and sad. At that moment I believed that America will stay and continue to be a hateful and bigoted country,"
"These are presidential candidate rallies. Not a KKK rally. The fact that I experienced hate at a candidate rally tells you everything you need to know about Donald Trump and the people that support him. People will act more hateful and racist in environments that they feel not only encouraged to do it, but accept it as normal," he added.
Meanwhile the man who assaulted Adeniyi has been identifiedas Jason Wilton Wetzel (pictured is his mugshot and a screenshot from the video recorded by Adeniyi) seems to have shown some remorse.
"I can’t believe I did that. It was me, but I’m not a hateful man. I just got caught up. When I saw the video all over the news of me doing that to that young man, I was just disgusted with myself." said Mr Wetzel, who confirmed to the Daily News that it was him seen physically and verbally assaulting a Adeniyi.
Investigators said Wetzel, 70, moved to North Carolina from Georgia when his job with the military was transferred to Fort Bragg. According to detectives, Wetzel is accused of voting in both states in the 2012 primary and general elections as well as voting in both states in 2014.
"I have no criminal background," Adeniyi told The News. "This man does. So please explain to me who the real thug is. A young black man who is a junior in college majoring in medical laboratory science and who also happens to hold many leadership positions there? Or is it this man, with a criminal background who attacked me for no reason?"
Reached by phone Monday, Wetzel claimed that it was indeed him on the video, but said:
"I’m not a racist or hateful, I just got caught up. I can’t explain it. I want to apologize to this young man and maybe take him out to dinner or something."
Linda Ikeji

JAMB grants opportunity for candidates who missed UTME to retake exam BySylvester Ugwuanyion March 19, 2016

The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board, JAMB, has finally agreed to reschedule examination for candidates who missed the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination, UTME, due to the relocation of centres by the board.
Following the board’s relocation of 59,000 candidates in 15 states because of problems in some of the centres which cost them the exam, the affected candidates had carried out series of protests in some states of the country against the examination body.
But speaking at a press conference in Abuja yesterday, the Registrar of the board, Prof. Dibu Ojerinde assured that candidates who had system failure during the examination would retake it, if the board finds their complaint to be genuine.
According to him, “We relocated candidates where the board had challenges. The board is looking at some of the issues raised during the examination, but most of the excuses raised by candidates are flimsy.
“We relocated about 59, 000 candidates due to the problems in various centres which vary from town to town. There are about 59,000 of them spread across 15 states of the federation.
“Those that were relocated never suffered any setback or inconvenience. For all these two sets of people, I want to apologise sincerely for what happened to them, but we are going to put on a redress for those whose relocation affected them in missing their examination.”
Stressing that the new development does not affect candidates who missed the examination deliberately or failed in the examination, he said among the 1,546,633 candidates who sat for the 2016 UTME, 145, 704 had issues of multiple results which have been resolved by the board.
Prof. Ojerinde added that 23, 577 candidates were absent on the day of the examination.
His words, “Let me use this opportunity to offer explanation on the issue of the much-publicized two results. The process of our marking involves transformation and other qualitative programming. In the process of these configurations, we had a little challenge which we quickly corrected and ensured that this never happened in subsequent results. This challenge was only associated with the candidates that sat for this examination on Saturday, 27, and some candidates of Monday, 29 February, 2016.”
Ojerinde continued that the board found out that some of the over 500 centres used for the CBT were compromised by the operators, revealing that one of its centres in Uromi, Edo State was invaded by mercenaries during the examination.
While accusing the education consultants for mobilizing candidates to protest against the conduct of the examination by the board, he maintained that the quality of the centres used for UTME would not be compromised.
“In our quest to have adequate and effective centres for the exercise, we approved over 500 centres, but unfortunately, some of the centre operators were not sincere in proving us with the true position of their facilities.
“They hired equipment during the period of accreditation and other necessary apparatus and on the examination day, they were found wanting. This led to relocation or rescheduling of candidates from some of them to more suitable centres.”
Ojerinde, who insisted that Nigeria was ready for Computer-Based Test, CBT examination, explained that reverting to the Paper and Pencil Test, PPT, as directed by the House of Representatives would amount to lack of progress. He assured that the CBT would be improved upon.
“Even the physically challenged are taking the CBT examination. One of the blind candidates scored 286, so why should others complain?
“Going back to the Paper and Pencil Test will amount to taking one step forward and two steps backwards,” the JAMB boss stated.