LSETF signs $10 million deal with US African Development Foundation

09 May 2019
Financial Nigeria

Summary

The Lagos State Entrepreneurship Trust Fund said the partnership is in line with its mandate to provide employment and entrepreneurship opportunities for Lagos residents.

Ifueko Omoigui Okauru, Chairman, Board of Trustees, Lagos State Entrepreneurship Trust Fund

The Lagos State Entrepreneurship Trust Fund (LSETF) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the United States African Development Foundation (USADF) to support the training of 15,000 youths in Lagos State over the next five years.

Under the terms of the agreement, both parties will provide an equal sum of $2 million each year for skill development over the five-year period. The agreement also entails providing six months internship opportunities for the 15,000 youths. 50 per cent of the beneficiaries would be women.

Speaking at the signing ceremony in the United States, Ifueko Omoigui Okauru, Chairman of LSETF’s Board of Trustees, said, “The USADF-LSETF collaboration will enable the expansion of world-class vocational training centres in the State; development of 15,000 skilled youths into targeted sector; provision of internship cost subsidies to employers; tracking real-time placement of unemployed youths into jobs.”

The LSETF, in a statement released on Wednesday, said the partnership is in line with its mandate to provide employment and entrepreneurship opportunities for Lagos residents. Established in 2016, LSETF aims to promote entrepreneurship by improving access to finance, strengthen the institutional capacity of micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) and actively intervene in policy formulation to improve the business environment.

The latest unemployment data for states released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) shows Lagos State recorded the highest gain in employment by adding 740,146 jobs and the lowest rate of unemployment at 14.6 per cent. According to the report, 20.9 million Nigerians were unemployed by the third quarter of 2018.

The Acting Executive Secretary of LSETF, Teju Abisoye, who took over from Akintunde Oyebode, who left the Fund in March to join the Ekiti State government, said, “It is obvious that the deliberate employment intervention policies of the Lagos State government are finally impacting job creation. It is good to have USADF join us to create more jobs for our youth, whilst sustainably decreasing our alarming unemployment rate.”

“We are proud to be in partnership with the LSETF, whose programmes have been independently verified to be making an impact on the lives of young Nigerians,” said C. D. Glin, President and CEO of USADF. “This USADF-LSETF partnership further expands our commitment to investing in high impact initiatives hinged on generating income, providing financial solutions and causing a change in the African economy.”


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