Thirty members of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) have been offered business grants worth N10 million by Unity Bank Plc.
The corps members that benefited were presented with the money by the lender through its business plan competition known as Corpreneurship Challenge.
This year’s Unity Bank Corpreneurship Challenge, which is in its sixth edition, has been an avenue to support fresh graduates from various tertiary institutions across the country.
Unity Bank is currently in 10 states of the federation where three winners each emerged from the Batch B Orientation. The winners emerged last week from Lagos, Ogun, Benin, Abuja, Akwa Ibom, Kano, Sokoto, Enugu, Osun, and the Kwara States.
The cash prizes included a N200,000 business grant for third place winners; a N300,000 business grant for second place and a star prize of N500,000 for the winners.
Some of the winners included Yahaya Muhammad, Alade Ayinde and Omolola Kehinde in the Kano NYSC camp, while Chiamaka Nweke, Nduke Oduobuk and Victoria Adesope emerged as the winners in the Enugu State camp.
Ebingha Ogbe John, one of the Abuja based winners, appreciated Unity Bank for the opportunity, saying the initiative has helped her to showcase her business to the world.
She said, “I thank Unity Bank for making my project, Mama’s Ally Crashfish, to come alive in this Abuja”.
The scheme continues to attract increasing interest among corps members, as over 2,000 applications were received but only 100 were shortlisted for the pitching sessions where the thirty winners emerged.
The contestants’ business plans, which ranged from software solutions, fashion, fish production, poultry farming, bee farming, retail chains, piggery to beverages were assessed on originality, marketability, future employability potential of the product and knowledge of the business.
In his remarks during the finale in the FCT NYSC camp, the Divisional Head, Retail, SME Banking and E-Business Directorate, Unity Bank Plc, Mr Olufunwa Akinmade, said the competition has proved to be a great tool for empowering fresh graduates in the country.
“The corpreneurship challenge is a creative entrepreneurial development initiative by Unity Bank in conjunction with the National Youth Service Corps, NYSC. It is aimed at driving job creation through entrepreneurship.
“With rising youth unemployment in the country, it is just common sense to consider the entrepreneurship alternative”
“As the corps members join the labour market after their youth service, not every one of them will get the opportunity for a paid employment. But with what Unity Bank is doing, many of them will get the support they need to start a small business and even become employers of labour.
“We encourage the corps members to take seriously the opportunity that the Unity Bank Corpreneurship has provided. And to those that have emerged as the winners today, we ask them to utilise their grants judiciously. Unity Bank remains committed to empowering the youth through initiatives such as this, as we know that the bedrock of the economy is entrepreneurship,” he said.
The Zonal Head, North West, Unity Bank Plc, Mr Mustapha Idris Baba, urged the winners to judiciously maximise the funds to support their business ventures.
