1. The Nigeria Youth Investment Fund (NYIF) application portal, hosted on NIRSAL Micro-Finance Bank (NMFB) website, has received nearly 4 Million applications for the 2020 first tranche of N12.5 Billion, which opened on October 16, 2020. Till date only N165, 700, 000 has been disbursed to 247 beneficiaries with varying tenors. This was the pilot phase.
2. The processing of the second phase has since commenced with SMS messages and emails being sent to applicants. The Ministry wishes to apologize for the delays and frustrations many applicants have experienced. The Ministry is working earnestly to resolve all IT related and processing issues.
3. The Ministry wishes to alert applicants that some of these IT related and processing issues include many instances of email disparity whereby applicants registered with business centers email addresses and are now trying to proceed with their personal email addresses, which results in mismatches that the system does not recognize.
4. When submitting information online, applicants are encouraged to wait for the system to finish processing such that they are able to see the automatic prompts that display the progress of their applications.
5. Applicants should note that relaying or sharing the email and SMS sent to them will not work for secondary recipients as only the original recipients of the SMS, with the correct credentials like emails and birthday, are able to proceed with the application. Those who have or currently benefits from other government intervention programmes are also not able to proceed with the application.
6. The NYIF is a repayable “soft” loan and not a grant, therefore the processing of applications must be done carefully.
7. Application for this 2020 tranche closes on February 28, 2020. Thereafter, successful applicants will continue to be notified in batches and invited for the next processes that will lead to loan disbursement to qualified applicants.
Lere-Adams. A.B.
Director Press.
