5th January, 2016
Kazeem Ugbodaga
Lagos State Governor, Akinwunmi Ambode on Tuesday signed into law the N25 billion Employment Trust Fund, ETF, Bill aimed at tackling the high rate of unemployment in the state.
The governor who signed the bill into law along with the Lagos State Univeristy, LASU (Amendment) Bill 2015, at the State House, Ikeja, Lagos, southwest Nigeria, said the event represented a milestone of his administration’s resolve to tackle the problem of unemployment through granting of soft loans to individuals for the purpose of making them self-employed to create wealth.
Ambode said that during his campaign, one of the promises he made to Lagosians was to establish an ETF scheme to address the challenges of unemployment in the state.
He said each year, the state government would inject N6.25 billion into the fund for a period of four years, making it N25 billion cumulatively.
The governor added that a board of trustees would be announced in due course to manage the fund, saying that members of the board shall be outside the purview of government.
Ambode had in November, 2015 sent the ETF bill to the State House of Assembly for approval. The fund is aimed at transforming employment creation in the state over the next four years.
The ETF will be administered as soft loans to bona fide residents of the state who desired facilities ranging from N100,000 to N1 million or more as the case may be.
The is modeled after the state’s Security Trust Fund, which means it will be funded through joint contributions from the Lagos State government and the private sector.
The fund will be administered through an independent Trust backed by an efficient structure that will disburse the funds.
The Ministry of Wealth Creation and Employment, which was created in June by Governor Ambode, will oversee the affairs of the scheme while the funds will be channelled through the state’s micro-finance institutions.
Beneficiaries would be selected across the five divisions in the state: Lagos Island, Ikeja, Badagry, Epe and Ikorodu to allow citizens in every part of the state enjoy the novel scheme.
About 1% interest rate will be charged on the loan to take care of administrative expenses.