To provide a common platform for all the training of youth entrepreneurship, the federal government has launched the Youth Entrepreneurship strategy, YES. The portal – Nigeria Youth Entrepreneurship Network, NYENET.COM – is government’s collaboration with Nicholas Okoye, founder of Empower Nigeria.

While speaking at the launch, President Goodluck Jonathan said the broad based public-private platform is meant to speed up an already fast moving train of young entrepreneurs through government interventions that have created millions of additional jobs in the country. “This strategy will redefine the way we engage and support the empowerment and employment of our youth and women going forward,” Jonathan said.

Jonathan expressed satisfaction that the first batch of 2500 entrepreneurs has created an average of 9 jobs each making it a total of 22,000 jobs so far. “Entrepreneurs are the engine room of the Nigeria’s economy as they are responsible for more than sixty percent of our $510billion GDP and the MSMEs are responsible for almost 98 per cent of the new jobs created in our economy on an annual basis. The new jobs we are targeting will come from the SMEs,” he said.

He further pointed out that the new online portal would give young budding entrepreneurs opportunities for both training and funding for entrepreneurial ideas.

Jonathan offered himself as a mentor to the young entrepreneurs by signing into the ‘Coalition of Super Mentors’, which is part of the YES, saying that he would also encourage other big and prominent Nigerian entrepreneurs to do so.

“Why we are here: there is unemployment crisis in the country, terrorism, armed robbery, kidnapping are all fall out employment. The telecom only employ, 250,000, they can produce over 2 million indirect jobs, banking 300,000, 1 million in micro schemes indirect jobs, oil and gas over 350,000, over million opportunities in micro schemes in welders, health and management etc. These sectors alone can’t address the employment,” he said.