31.7% of Nigerian youths lack access to bank loans for businesses

The bureau said this in its National Youth Survey for 2020, obtained from its website in Abuja on Monday.

According to it, the report is a collaborative effort between the Federal Ministry of Youth and Sports Development and the NBS.

It also said that stringent bank polices, government policies and other measures adopted by banking institutions make it difficult for youths to finance their businesses through bank loans.

Giving a breakdown of the result from the survey, the NBS said that stringent bank policies accounted for 24.8 per cent youths not having access to bank loans, 7.3 per cent attributed their challenges to government policies while 13.2 per cent of the youths gave other reasons.

"At zonal level, youths from South-South 45.7 per cent and South West 35.5 per cent could not access bank loan due to high rate of interest while youths from North-West 54.5 per cent and North-Central 33.8 per cent could not access bank loans due to stringent policies.

"Youths from South-South 15.7 per cent and North-East 13.3 per cent could not access bank loans due to government policies."

It however said that for those that had access to bank loans, nationally, 55.1 per cent female youths had access than their male counterparts put at 44.9 per cent.

Analysing major challenges facing youths in businesses, the report said that the survey indicated different types of challenges faced by youths in their business enterprises.

According to it, nationally, 86.1 per cent of youths faced the challenge of access to fund to finance their businesses, while 4.9 per cent faced the challenge of inconsistency in government policies.

It said that another 4.6 per cent faced the challenges of obsolete equipment while three per cent faced the challenges of lack of proper training in relation to their businesses.

"At zonal level, most youths from all the zones reported the challenge of financing their businesses; youths from South-West (100 per cent) top the list followed by North-East at 93.6 per cent while youths from South-East (78.1 per cent) were least.

"However, youths from North-Central (9.2 per cent) faced the challenge of obsolete equipment for their businesses followed by youth from South-East (3.5 per cent).

"Meanwhile, youths from South- East (10 per cent) reported inconsistencies in government policies as a major challenge affecting their businesses."

For sources of business funding, the survey reported that youths across the six geo-political zones source for funds to set up their businesses enterprises through personal savings, loans, family sources, cooperative/Esusu, grants and other sources.

It said that nationally, 34.5 per cent of youths sourced fund through government grants to set up their business enterprises, while 29.7 per cent of youths used their personal savings.

The report added that 15.1 per cent sourced funds through cooperative thrift and 2.4 per cent of the youth obtained loan to start up their business enterprises.

"The results on zonal level shows that 96.6 per cent of youths from South-South obtained grants to start-up businesses and 49.2 percent of youths from North-Central also obtained grants to start-up their businesses.

"Meanwhile, in the South-West, 26.2 per cent of youths acquired fund through cooperative thrift to start-up their businesses, while in the North-West 44.4 per cent and South-West 24.8 per cent of youths obtained funds through other sources."

It added that across the six geo-political zones, more female youths (65.4 per cent) operated business enterprises than their male counterpart.

It said that the North-West with 82.9 per cent had the highest number of female youths who operated business enterprises followed by South-South (73.5 per cent), North Central (70.7 per cent), while the North-East had 36 per cent.

On the other hand, 64 per cent male youths in North East engaged in business, more than females followed by South-East (57.7 per cent) while the North West had just 17.1 per cent male youths in business enterprises.

For business registration, the result indicated that only 8.9 per cent of youths registered business enterprises across the six geo-political zones.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the survey is a follow up on the National Baseline Youth Survey 2012 version, as the NBS attempts to fulfill its mandate of providing credible and comprehensive statistics on all levels of the country.

Furthermore, the report enhances the ability of policy makers and other stakeholders to improve the efficacy of policies they put forward through the use of evidence based data.