Enterprise Development Centre in partnership with MasterCard Foundation has announced the launch of Transforming Nigerian Youth Program, an entrepreneurial development program aimed at supporting 40,000 Nigerians, in a bid to help reduce the rate of unemployment.

The program seeks to promote network of entrepreneurial and managerial change maker’s particularly young men and women across micro, small and medium enterprises sector, in Nigeria.

The free training program is open to all and primary focused on people living in Lagos, Kano and Kaduna states. Through this program, 40,000 young people will be supported with the resources and learning required to start, grow, and expand their businesses.

The program will also provide support and resources to young people who want to become employable in the creative and agricultural sectors.

In the last decade, Nigeria’s unemployment rate has continued to increase. According to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), the unemployment rate as at the second quarter of 2020 was 27.1 percent, indicating that about 21,764,614 (21.7 million) Nigerians remain unemployed, of which 13.9 million are young people.

Enterprise Development Centre (EDC) of the Pan-Atlantic University, a leading enterprise development Centre, has in the last 17 years, provided support services to thousands of SMEs through capacity building, advisory services, and partnerships with organizations that have an interest in the development of the SME sector in Nigeria.