The Bank of Industry (BOI) has set aside the sum of 2 billion naira to support young entrepreneurs with loans to finance their businesses.

The Bank said its interest which is between 10 and 13 percent for micro loans or big loans, is accessible by Nigerians including young entrepreneurs provided they meet the criteria like registration with the Corporate Affairs Commission among others.

BOI Project Officer, Lawal Khaleel said this at a stakeholders' meeting on the Inclusive Economic Empowerment Project (IEE) funded by the British Council and implemented by Centre for Information Technology and Development CITAD in Kano.

Khaleel who noted that businesses in Kano are concerned about interest charged by financial institutions, said the Bank of Industry has obtained a licence from the Central Bank of Nigeria CBN to commence Non-interest banking as part of effort to address their concerns.

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He said the mandate of the bank is to industrialise the country not for profit-making, adding that the bank carries out its due diligence before granting loans to applicants who often face bureaucratic bottlenecks when applying to through digital apps.

"Our mandate is to industrialise the country but the major obstacles here in the North is lack of access to finance because of the interest issue," said Khaleel.

The project officer advised CITAD to help young entrepreneurs with business plans and approach BOI to secure loans for their business.

CITAD Programme Officer Haruna Adamu Hadejia said the IEE project is tailored to address unemployment and underemployment among youths whom he said are the major drivers of economic growth.

In a paper presentation on Bridging Youth Skills and Labour Market and Enterprises needs, CITAD's Isa Garba said between 42 and 55 percent of Nigerian youth are unemployed or underemployed.

He said Kano has 29.4% youth unemployment and 32.06% underemployment rates with a critical skills gap between graduate output and labour needs,calling for a multi stakeholder approach to address the skill gap of about 67.0%.

A Director at Kano Chamber of Commerce, Industries ,Mines and Agriculture KACCIMA Tijjani Sarki said the chamber is dealing largely with small scale businesses whose major challenge remains access to loans.

50 successful applicants were selected for the IEE project.