1,200 pioneer winners have emerged among the 24, 000 youth that applied for the the Youth Enterprise with Innovations in Nigeria (YouWin) scheme organized by the federal government to create jobs for Nigeria youth and encourage entrepreneurship.
Six out of the 1,200 winners were selected for the presidential awards.
Speaking at the presidential awards ceremony of the YouWin on Thursday, President Goodluck Jonathan said administration’s desire was to encourage beneficiaries to create jobs for their co-youths.
He noted that the 1,200 pioneer winners found worthy of government’s support could not afford to fail the nation as he asked them to put in extra efforts and become extra-ordinary Nigerians.
Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, also noted that the 1,200 pioneer winners emerged were selected by a panel of judges comprising leading entrepreneurs as well as the government’s development partners like the World Bank and DFID.
She described the process that produced the winners as rigorous, fair and transparent.
Explaining the break-down of the winners according to the nation’s cub-region, the Minister stated that 204 of the winners were from the North-Central; 167 came from the North-East; 170 from the North-West; 184 from the South-East; 194 from the South-South and 281 from the South-West.
She also noted that 53 per cent of the winners are existing businesses owners while the remaining are newly conceived.
Each of the winners of the presidential awards were drawn from the six geo-political zones of the country and they each got N500,000 courtesy of First Bank Plc.
