YES-P participants will be staging a nation wide peaceful protest to:
Bank of Industry head office Marina Lagos,
State house Abuja,
National assembly complex Abuja,
Federal Ministry of Trade and Investment Abuja and all State BOI offices nationwide.

DATE: Monday 6th of March 2017.
TIME: 9:00am prompt


LAGOS GROUP.
Meeting Point: TBS before onward march to BOI head office, Marina.

TIME: 9:00am Prompt

DATE: Monday 6th March 2017.

FOR MORE DETAILS, CONTACT:
KEN 0803 911 8962 (Lagos).
LIONSPIRIT 0803 610 3642 (Lagos).


ABUJA GROUP

Meeting Point: Beside Reiz Intercontinental Hotel, Central Area, Opposite BOI office abuja

TIME: 9am Prompt

DATE: Monday 6th March 2017.

FOR MORE DETAILS,
CONTACT:
IT 0805 242 2190 (Abuja).
JM 0805 990 2401 (Abuja).

DRESS CODE:
Dress corporate or wear any descent cloth.

FACTS/ISSUES WE HOPE TO ACHIEVE FROM THIS PEACEFUL PROTEST:

Loan terms review; seeking for softer terms: guarantor ; removal of net worth, Use of certificate as main collateral, as well as equipment bought and the entire business:
Derisking our quarantor, becomes liable only on abscond of the participants:

Allow the use of OND as the minimum certificate as earlier announced:

Transparency in making the loan terms uniform across all states

There should be a a timeline i.e fix a specific date to which a particular batch will be trained, get approval letter and actual disbursement with date:

BOI should explain why no single participant has gotten the funds one year after lunching yes-p

BOI should debunk the remour of not willing to fund start-ups

A letter of police protection is already being transmitted to the IG of police and copied to all the state commissioners of police.

All media houses and bloggers are highly invited to cover this peaceful March.


DOs & DONTs OF THE MARCH

Do not obstruct traffic movement or individuals

Do not destroy public facilities/equipments

No abusive words on BOI staff and FG officials

Act as entrepreneurs NOT as tauts , No fighting allowed.


DO THE FOLLOWING:

Use placards

Follow instructions of all group leaders

One person speaks at a time, in relating our demand

Submit our demand at the end of the march!

This is why we protest https://www.nairaland.com/3632343/bois-entrepreneurship-scheme-applicants-lament


Cc: lalasticlala, FOD, Dominique, naijacutee,

Kindly do justice to this thread so that the government will know the difficulties yes-p participants across Nigeria have passed through in the past one year and assist us.

The Naira has made appreciable gains against the dollar in the last couple of hours. Here's the back story to it all.

This time last week, the Naira was in a race of its own for the bottom.

Nigeria's currency just couldn't be stopped.
At the parallel market just a few days ago, the Naira closed trading at N525 to the Dollar.

Economists and speculators were so sure that trading would close at N600/$1 before mid March, 2017.
However, on February 20, 2017, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) tweaked its foreign exchange policy following marching orders from the national economic council headed by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo.

Osinbajo and finance minister Kemi Adeosun mandated the CBN headed by its Governor Godwin Emefiele, to review its monetary policy.

"Council members generally expressed concern over the current situation of the exchange rate and called for an urgent review of the current forex policy, especially interbank and parallel market rates", Silas Ali Agara, Deputy Governor of Nasarawa State, told the press after the meeting.

In the past, Emefiele had been advised to do something about the falling Naira.

Adeosun and Emefiele have had public disagreements over the bank's monetary policy in the past.

This time, the CBN Governor was left with no choice, one top ranking government official who was at the meeting, told Pulse.

Emefiele was read the riot act.

"We told the CBN Governor that he had to do something urgently. It was an order", the official said.
Five days later, the CBN rolled out a raft of new forex policies.
"In continuation of efforts to increase the availability of foreign exchange in order to ease the difficulties encountered by Nigerians in obtaining funds for foreign exchange transactions, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) is providing direct additional funding to banks to meet the needs of Nigerians for personal and business travel, medical needs and school fees, effective immediately.

"The CBN expects such retail transactions to be settled at a rate not exceeding 20 percent above the interbank market rate," a statement signed by the apex bank's Director of corporate communications, Isaac Okorafor, read.

Other parts of the statement detailed that the CBN will immediately begin to provide foreign exchange to all commercial banks to meet the needs of both personal travel allowances (PTA) and business travel allowances (BTA) and meet the needs of parents, guardians and sponsors who are seeking to make payments of school and educational fees for their children and wards.
Before the CBN's new forex policy interventions, travellers out of Nigeria were finding it difficult to access forex at the airports.

Travelex and other forex companies at the airports weren't selling dollars, even though they all had the dollars.

"They are all hoarding the dollar", one passenger told Pulse at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport in Lagos, days before the CBN rolled out its new set of policies. "The banks are selling to the parallel market...to the Mallams, who in turn sell to the general public at an exorbitant price".

One Bureau De Change dealer told Pulse that they were purchasing the dollar at N350/$1 at official CBN sources and selling same to the public at N520/$1.

Other traders in forex were simply holding on to the dollar in anticipation of further devaluation of the Naira. Some held onto their forex while waiting to sell at higher prices.

Speculators in forex were having a field day.

"There was a lot of round-tripping and greed going on," a financial analyst who craved anonymity for this story, told Pulse.
"N525 is certainly not the true value of the Naira to the Dollar", one banker told Pulse in utter frustration, last week.
"In order to further ease the burden of travellers and ensure that transactions are settled at much more competitive exchange rates, the CBN hereby directs all banks to open FX retail outlets at major airports as soon as logistics permit", the apex bank ordered.

There was more from a now livid central bank:

"The Bank reiterates that it would neither tolerate unscrupulous actions nor hesitate to bring serious sanctions on offenders, be they banks or their staff", the statement read.

24 hours after the CBN barked and flexed its muscle, the Naira appreciated against the Dollar.

Pulse' checks at Bureau De Change outlets at the Lagos airport, showed that the Naira is now exchanging for N400 to the dollar, N520 to the Pound and N420 to the Euro, as at 12 noon, Friday February 24, 2017.

The Naira may well trade for N300 to the dollar before mid March, if prevailing favourable conditions persist.
Besides the CBN's new interventionist policy, there are a few more dollars to play with in Nigeria at the moment.
The price of crude oil has risen to $56/barrel in the international market and Nigeria's crude oil output has gone past the 2million bpd (barrel per day) mark from previous poor levels of 1.7million bpd--which had to do with activities of pipeline vandals.
At the best of times, Nigeria was averaging 2.2million bpd.

As a consequence, Nigeria's foreign exchange reserves have increased to $27B and foreign investors have just shown that there is still a strong appetite for Nigeria's market with an oversubscribed Eurobond.

There's a lot more dollar in circulation at the moment than there was last month or two months ago.
Analysts say the gains of the past couple of days in the country's forex market can be sustained if the CBN and deposit money banks show more transparency in their dealings and if the apex bank stops rigging its own forex market.

The only way to put speculators out of business, one financial analyst told Pulse, is to make sure the interbank has sufficient forex to trade.

CBN officials have often been accused of selling forex to the black market and bypassing the banks, because there's more bang for the buck that way.

Once there's an artificial dollar scarcity at the official channels, the black market waits in the wings to make a killing, Pulse was told by two bankers who contributed for this story separately.

Source: http://pulse.ng/business/forex-crisis-how-naira-went-from-n525-1-to-n400-1-in-3-days-id6276482.html?link_time=1487947942#utm_medium=Social&utm_campaign=Echobox&utm_source=Facebook&utm_term=Autofeed

We need volunteers who are ready to appear on live radio to inform Nigerians about the frustrations and difficulties the bank of industry (Boi) made us to pass through in the past one year without been able to access the yes-p loan.

If you are interested, Click here... https:///JVTgcwi2Gk0LNDL6MQfwEG

We need volunteers who are ready to appear on radio to inform Nigerians about the frustrations and difficulties the bank of industry (Boi) made us to pass through in the past one year without been able to access the yes-p loan.

If you are interested, Click here... https:///JVTgcwi2Gk0LNDL6MQfwEG

We need volunteers (yes-p participants) who are ready to appear on radio at least 5persons.

If you are interested, Click here... https:///JVTgcwi2Gk0LNDL6MQfwEG

Also Read about the sad experiences of Boi/yes-p participants across Nigeria over the past 11 months.
https://www.nairaland.com/3632343/bois-entrepreneurship-scheme-applicants-lament

Source: http://www.vanguardngr.com/2017/02/bois-entrepreneurship-scheme-applicants-lament-non-disbursement-loans/


*Say bank keeps changing requirements

By Yinka Kolawole

APPLICANTS of the Youth Entrepreneurship Support (YES) programme of the Bank of Industry (BoI) have lamented that, months after completing the rigorous online and in-class training aspect of the scheme, they have not been able to access any loan from the bank.

Their complaints are in response to a recent report in Vanguard on the experiences of beneficiaries of the programme, where they highlighted the impact of the scheme on their business orientation. The applicants claimed that while the training they under-went in various centres and online were very enriching, accessing the loans thereafter has proved to be a herculean task, contrary to the promise made by BoI officials during the training. Here are some of the complainants and their complaints:

Samuel Temidayo: “Why the waste of time, money and resources? If you had no intention of making access to financing easier and better than the conventional bottlenecks in commercial banks, why waste over N800,000 in training each YES Programme participant, multiplied by the 2500 individuals that scaled through to the final stage? We went through 3 months of online training and had remarkable exposure to the real business environment only to be thrown between the buses when we were all girded and ready to apply everything we have learnt.

“I had my in-training at the EDC headquarter in Lagos and was opportune to hear from the MD of BOI that there’s enough money for all the 2500 successful candidates for the in-class. We were however shocked to see new sets of conditions, after the first set we were given on concluding the in-class. From then, new and more ridiculous conditions were been introduced like every other week. To be honest, this loan has not been accessed by a single person in my group, I don’t know about all other groups and state.”

Oyetunji G. Abbey: “BoI has been so lackadaisical about this scheme even after the stringent conditions introduced after the entire 4 months training. We struggled to meet these conditions but yet, no update, no loan! I applied for a loan of about N5 million. I’m not a start-up, my business has been running, but my loan was reduced to N2.7 million and several months after this notification of my loan reduction, I didn’t get any update from BoI.

The cost of one of my proposed machinery I gave them, a delivery bike precisely, was N270,000 in the market, 3 months down the line with this lackadaisical attitude, the machinery went up to N350,000 and now I don’t even know the current price of that machine. This would have happened to so many other applicants as well. The most annoying thing is no follow up, no information and no news.

Economic development

BoI should learn from the Lagos State Empowerment Trust Fund (LSETF). That is how an empowerment scheme should be run. Not putting people on hold for almost 12 months without any headway.”

Dielamo Oyeghe: “I had thought the YES programme would be a stepping stone to achieving my entrepreneurial dreams and contribute my quota to the economic development of the country.

My dream is fading away due to the high-handedness of BoI. Good 10 months has passed and am still unable to access the loan due to the stringent conditions set by the bank. Initially, we were told that our University certificate and NYSC discharge letter could be used as collateral, only surprised to learn of impossible requirements to fulfill at the point of the in-class training. We went through vigorous and stressful 3-months online training and 5-days in-class training. Resources and time was drained in the process. I spent money buying data for the online training, traveled to Port Harcourt for the in-class training where I also fed and accommodated myself. I hereby call for a review or total scrap of the loan conditions. It is a good initiative, but effort must be made to fast-track the loan disbursement process.”

Joe Onyeka: The way BoI is handling this program , I doubt if they will achieve up to 10 percent of the aim of this program. I thought this is an intervention program to create 6000 direct jobs and 30,000 indirect jobs but 11 months after we applied for the programme and 4 months after the in-house training, I don’t think that up to 90 percent of the participants have met the criteria for the loan which means just less than 10 percent have submitted their requirements to BOI. Even those ones that have submitted, none of them have received the loan from the response I have been getting from the participants from the various WhatsApp groups.

The programme started well, the online training was thorough and impactful. However, accessing the loan is problematic. For instance, in the work sheet given to us at the onset, the guarantor required was a Level 7 officer in the civil service. But on applying for the loan, they now changed it to Level 12, which has not been easy to get. Even at that, nobody has been able to access the loan.

No comment from BoI

BoI is yet to respond to these allegations, as an SMS sent to a top official in the corporate affairs department of the bank has not been replied as at the time of writing this report.


Cc: lalasticlala, Mynd44, OAM4J
Please move this post to the promise land so that the FG and Nigerians will know what has been happening to yes-p over the past one year.

Also Read about the sad experiences of Boi/yes-p participants across Nigeria over the past 11 months.

https://www.nairaland.com/3631977/bois-entrepreneurship-scheme-applicants-lament#53757548

Also Read about the sad experiences of Boi/yes-p participants across Nigeria over the past 11 months.

https://www.nairaland.com/3631977/bois-entrepreneurship-scheme-applicants-lament#53757548

Also Read about the predicament of yes-p participants here:
https://www.nairaland.com/3631977/bois-entrepreneurship-scheme-applicants-lament#53757548

Source: http://www.vanguardngr.com/2017/02/bois-entrepreneurship-scheme-applicants-lament-non-disbursement-loans/

APPLICANTS of the Youth Entrepreneurship Support (YES) programme of the Bank of Industry (BoI) have lamented that, months after completing the rigorous online and in-class training aspect of the scheme, they have not been able to access any loan from the bank.

Their complaints are in response to a recent report in Vanguard on the experiences of beneficiaries of the programme, where they highlighted the impact of the scheme on their business orientation. The applicants claimed that while the training they under-went in various centres and online were very enriching, accessing the loans thereafter has proved to be a herculean task, contrary to the promise made by BoI officials during the training. Here are some of the complainants and their complaints:

Samuel Temidayo: “Why the waste of time, money and resources? If you had no intention of making access to financing easier and better than the conventional bottlenecks in commercial banks, why waste over N800,000 in training each YES Programme participant, multiplied by the 2500 individuals that scaled through to the final stage? We went through 3 months of online training and had remarkable exposure to the real business environment only to be thrown between the buses when we were all girded and ready to apply everything we have learnt.

“I had my in-training at the EDC headquarter in Lagos and was opportune to hear from the MD of BOI that there’s enough money for all the 2500 successful candidates for the in-class. We were however shocked to see new sets of conditions, after the first set we were given on concluding the in-class. From then, new and more ridiculous conditions were been introduced like every other week. To be honest, this loan has not been accessed by a single person in my group, I don’t know about all other groups and state.”

Oyetunji G. Abbey: “BoI has been so lackadaisical about this scheme even after the stringent conditions introduced after the entire 4 months training. We struggled to meet these conditions but yet, no update, no loan! I applied for a loan of about N5 million. I’m not a start-up, my business has been running, but my loan was reduced to N2.7 million and several months after this notification of my loan reduction, I didn’t get any update from BoI.

The cost of one of my proposed machinery I gave them, a delivery bike precisely, was N270,000 in the market, 3 months down the line with this lackadaisical attitude, the machinery went up to N350,000 and now I don’t even know the current price of that machine. This would have happened to so many other applicants as well. The most annoying thing is no follow up, no information and no news.

Economic development

BoI should learn from the Lagos State Empowerment Trust Fund (LSETF). That is how an empowerment scheme should be run. Not putting people on hold for almost 12 months without any headway.”

Dielamo Oyeghe: “I had thought the YES programme would be a stepping stone to achieving my entrepreneurial dreams and contribute my quota to the economic development of the country.

My dream is fading away due to the high-handedness of BoI. Good 10 months has passed and am still unable to access the loan due to the stringent conditions set by the bank. Initially, we were told that our University certificate and NYSC discharge letter could be used as collateral, only surprised to learn of impossible requirements to fulfill at the point of the in-class training. We went through vigorous and stressful 3-months online training and 5-days in-class training. Resources and time was drained in the process. I spent money buying data for the online training, traveled to Port Harcourt for the in-class training where I also fed and accommodated myself. I hereby call for a review or total scrap of the loan conditions. It is a good initiative, but effort must be made to fast-track the loan disbursement process.”

Joe Onyeka: The way BoI is handling this programme, I doubt if they will achieve up to 10 percent of the aim of this program. I thought this is an intervention program to create 6000 direct jobs and 30,000 indirect jobs but 11 months after we applied for the programme and 4 months after the in-house training, I don’t think that up to 90 percent of the participants have met the criteria for the loan which means just less than 10 percent have submitted their requirements to BOI. Even those ones that have submitted, none of them have received the loan from the response I have been getting from the participants from the various WhatsApp groups.

The programme started well, the online training was thorough and impactful. However, accessing the loan is problematic. For instance, in the work sheet given to us at the onset, the guarantor required was a Level 7 officer in the civil service. But on applying for the loan, they now changed it to Level 12, which has not been easy to get. Even at that, nobody has been able to access the loan.

No comment from BoI

BoI is yet to respond to these allegations, as an SMS sent to a top official in the corporate affairs department of the bank has not been replied as at the time of writing this report.

Lalasticlala, Mynd44, OAM4J
Kindly push this to the front page so that federal government will come to our assistance.

Also Read about the sad experiences of Boi/yes-p participants across Nigeria over the past 11 months.

https://www.nairaland.com/3626090/fg-boi-frustrates-yes-p-scheme#53666924

Also Read about the sad experiences of Boi/yes-p participants across Nigeria over the past 11 months.

https://www.nairaland.com/3626090/fg-boi-frustrates-yes-p-scheme#53666924

Also Read about the sad experiences of Boi/yes-p participants across Nigeria over the past 11 months.

https://www.nairaland.com/3626090/fg-boi-frustrates-yes-p-scheme#53666924

Also Read about the sad experiences of Boi/yes-p participants across Nigeria over the past 11 months.

https://www.nairaland.com/3626090/fg-boi-frustrates-yes-p-scheme#53666924

Also Read about the sad experiences of Boi/yes-p participants across Nigeria over the past 11 months.

https://www.nairaland.com/3626090/fg-boi-frustrates-yes-p-scheme#53666924

Seconded!


Also Read about the sad experiences of Boi/yes-p participants across Nigeria over the past 11 months.

https://www.nairaland.com/3626090/fg-boi-frustrates-yes-p-scheme#53666924

Also Read about the sad experiences of Boi/yes-p participants across Nigeria over the past 11 months.

https://www.nairaland.com/3626090/fg-boi-frustrates-yes-p-scheme#53666924

Read about the sad experiences of Boi/yes-p participants across Nigeria over the past 11 months.

https://www.nairaland.com/3626090/fg-boi-frustrates-yes-p-scheme#53666924

Contrary to earlier reports published in a top Nigerian newspaper on how the federal government’s Youths Entrepreneurial Support (YES) Programme in collaboration with Bank of Industry (BoI) empowered youths through the loan disbursed, fresh investigation by FINANCIAL WATCH has revealed that the news is false and no participant have benefited from the scheme.

FINANCIAL WATCH reached out to YES-P participants across the country and got some shocking response filled with disappointments, frustrations and a feeling of a waste of time by participants who could not meet up with the stringent conditions as well as some few who meet the requirements but are still yet to secure the loan to start their various businesses.

Below are experiences as shared by BoI YES-P participants across states in the country:

Joy Mbalaso – YesP participant, Abuja

Almost one (1 )year down the line, no significant achievement on the BOI YesP programme. An intervention programme that havent intervened in any way.

The conditions are very stringent and not even 2% of the total qualified participants have met them.

The youths are ready to revive the economy but no reasonable support from the government and other stakeholders. BOI should step down on the conditions and release these funds to YesP participants.

Also, recovered looted funds should be awarded to youths as grants to boost the Nigerian economy.

Etini Obot -YESP participant, Akwa Ibom

I have lost faith entirely in the process of getting the YES-P loan. The conditions for securing the loan are very frustrating and a near impossible task. The program has not been able to achieve its objectives hence, many innovative ideas have been left to die due to this delay.

Ndukwe lazurus yesp participant from Ebonyi State

Boi yesp loan is fraud of the highest order, government want to empower entrepreneur youths in the country only to ended up frustrating them, saping the little resources we have, we started this programme on march last year we undergoes intensive online training which cost a very big amount of money, after we proceed to in class training. we were responsible for accommodation and transportation for 5days, after all this processes BoI being to play all manner of prates bringing conditions upon conditions every day to frustrate us, from one guarantor to two guarantors, networth notarize assets etc, mr Ezekiel the requirements for loan is too much for the youth and is evil for government that want to empower her youth even Nebuchadnezzar cannot demand such from his youth, if at the end of all this appeal and media protest fg could not intervene i will conclude that also that apc lead government is deceit and liar and that government is ruling by falsehood,you cannot tell us one thing and change it overnight it is pure wickedness on BoI and FG.

Uba Prince Yes- Paticipant, Benin

The YES-P program has no face, seems its to frustrate the Nigerian youth as an entrepreneur, having visited their office at Asaba and was ask to get my factory site which I lease since October last year, they latter came up with demands that makes the loan in accessible by a common Nigerian. Their requirements shows this is no longer and intervention fund aim at supporting young business minds as the Yes-p program stated.

Abiodun From Kaduna

The disbursement of the loan is taking a long time, with the way prices are changing daily. It will take a miracle for the amount later disbursed to correspond to the quoted prices.

Obajemu Femi Kano

Its a painful experience and Yes p scheme is a failure. I was asked to lease a place before I would be inspected. After paying 340,000 naira to lease a ware house since November last year and has not heard anything since after inspection. BOI should open up to us if they don’t want us to access the loan. Am seriously getting frustrated because my rent is already reading.

Nomsu Audu- Kaduna

I can’t stop to imagine why Federal Government would spend such a huge amount of money to train successful participants through the online training which cost huge amount of money (an average of $450/participant) and later come up with stringent conditions that are nearly impossible for participants to meet.

I feel some set of people are politicizing the scheme against the federal government wish to cause hate on the present administration.

If FG call YES-P an intervention scheme, I see no reason why young entrepreneurs should be intentionally frustrated to the point of given up on their dreams.

Such funds in developed countries are given as grants. Why all this unnecessary and near-to-impossible conditions?

Curtis, Makurdi

Yes-P would never have been hinged on loans. It should have been grants with good conditions and nice checking or supervision apparatus. What we have been offered after a precious investment of our time and money is just a near waste of time. I implore the fed. Govt To stick to their earlier promises and stop this shame.

Adesola Fashoro Kaduna

It’s a total waste of time and waste of youthful resources. I applied for this programme because the condition that was earlier advertised were much more lenient. But after spending my hard earned cash on data for the 3 months online course and frustrated myself to be able to attend the in-class session, I am yet to get a single individual to guarantee the loan owing to the manipulative and never ending conditions.

Muhammad Awwal A YES-P participant based in KADUNA.

In my opinion the YES-P is a laudable initiative but fraught with poor implementation and stringent loan terms.

The three months online training under the AMI platform is a good one which all participants can attest to but my concern is why should FG expend such huge funds in training and engage consultants across the country for the one week in class training without looking at the participants empowerment aspect which to me is the most important objective of the scheme!

Participants across the country are seemingly frustrated by the stringent loan terms, longer than necessary delays and processes.

I hope FG can step in towards alleviating bottlenecks placed before young entrepreneurs yearning to contribute their quota to national development through our businesses that can create primary and secondary jobs especially at this time of economic recession!

Frank Edna YESP participant Calabar Cohort 1

I spent so much resources, efforts, time to make sure my three months online courses where completed. I travelled far to participate in a week’s in-class training. I also spent so much money to fix my business plan in place.

When it was time for final submissions, conditions that were so stringent that I couldn’t meet up laid me back.

If this opportunity will be taken away from me after so much efforts, I should be compensated for the time, data, and all that went with the training.

I shouldn’t be a loyal Nigerian doing my part to succeed in this present economy the government is putting up some funny policies to discourage me.

Source: https://twitter.com/financialwatchn/status/830770180221452288?s=08

http://www.financialwatchngr.com/2017/02/12/fg-boi-frustrates-yes-p-scheme-participants-shares-sad-experiences/

Mods, Kindly do justice to this topic to let Nigerians know what yes-p participants have encountered in the past 11 months.