Barely days to the end of the second quarter of this year, fact has emerged that only three billion naira out of the approved N12.5 billion was made available for disbursement to youths under the Nigeria Youth Investment Fund (NYIF).

The Ministry of Youth and Sports Development last year got approval from the Federal Executive Council, directing the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to make N12.5 billions available in the first tranche of NYIF operated by the ministry .

However, checks by our correspondent confirmed that only N3 billion has been made available by the CBN to NIRSAL Microfinance Bank (NMFB) through which some youths have secured loans of various amounts under the NYIF scheme.

Meanwhile, the ministry in a statement said it has disbursed loans to 5,200 youths amounting to one billion, six hundred and twenty-nine million, two hundred and twenty thousand naira (N1,629,220,000.00).

The information was contained in the latest update provided to the ministry by the NIRSAL Micro Finance Bank (NMFB), which disbursed the loan. The update also showed plans to disburse funds to another batch of 25,000 youth as soon as their loan applications are approved.

The total eligible applications, according to update, is 6054 out of which the 5,200 disbursements were made, leaving the number of those that have been approved but yet to get disbursement, at 854. The number of unqualified applicants for the batch is 721 .

An advisory from the ministry revealed that some applications were turned down due to the inability of the applicants to provide valid or correct contact details for communication on further steps in the loan application; or had existing AGSMEIS or COVID-19 Loan while some others were more than 35 years old, which puts them beyond the age bracket for youth.

Other reasons are that the applicants had poor credit rating or currently had a non-performing loan with some others failing to provide a valid BVN as well as incomplete or incorrect BVN.

The statement signed by the director of press and public relations, Mohammed Manga, reminded the beneficiaries and applicants that the monies disbursed by NYIF to youths are not grants, but repayable loans.