The National Youths Service Corps (NYSC) says it will partner with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and other commercial banks to provide soft loans to corps members across the country.

The Sokoto State Coordinator of the scheme, Alhaji Musa Abubakar, disclosed this on Saturday at the permanent orientation camp in Wamakko, headquarters of Wamakko Local Government.

Abubakar spoke during the NYSC cultural carnival and exhibition of wares produced by the corps members under the 2016, batch”B” stream.

He said that the other collaborating banks are the Bank of Industry, Bank of Agriculture and Heritage Bank.

Abubakar said that the corps members had gone through two weeks training on various skills, saying the training would continue throughout their service year.

”They have been trained on various skills like ICT, film making, photography, fashion design, tie and dye, cosmetology, brick making, interlocking and food processing, as well as preservation among others.

”Each of the beneficiaries may get between N3m and N10m to enable them establish their own small scale businesses.

”This will reduce unemployment, poverty and the post service trauma of searching for white collar jobs,” he said.

Abubakar said that the loans would be advanced to the corps members through the scheme’s Skills Acquisition and Entrepreneurship Development Department of the scheme.

According to him, with the loans, corps members would be transformed into self employed citizens, while others may become employers of labour.

On the carnival, Abubakar stated that it replaced the defunct endurance trek due to some emerging security challenges in the country.

”The carnival is aimed at boosting unity, cultural and ethno-religious integration.

”It also helps to bring out the hidden talents of the corps members, as well as explore their business potential,” Abubakar said.

Newsmen report that the highlight of the ceremony was an exhibition of the various products produced by the corps members.