Nigeria’s young entrepreneurs are not waiting for jobs; they are trading, building, crafting, and serving customers every day. What has kept their hustle from becoming enterprise is not ambition, but access: working capital, a credit history, and a formal route into the financial system. Today, the Nigerian Consumer Credit Corporation (CREDICORP) closed that gap with the launch of YouthCred for Entrepreneurs, a national credit line for young business owners, the third and most ambitious phase of the YouthCred programme, delivered at the Federal Ministry of Finance Auditorium in Abuja.
Today’s launch is a promise kept. In his Democracy Day address, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu announced that the Federal Government would deliver structured consumer credit to hundreds of thousands of young Nigerians through YouthCred rolled out in phases, beginning with NYSC Corps members, extending to employed youth, and culminating with young entrepreneurs. Phase one delivered: over 51,000 Corps members enrolled in the NYSC pilot, and more than 30,000 young Nigerians have since graduated from credit education and received financing. Phase two extended the programme to employed young Nigerians nationwide. Today, phase three completes the arc, bringing the same model to the young business owners who power Nigeria’s markets, workshops and storefronts.
