Mortgage bank partners Lashone skill acquisition centre on loan for business startups.
IT is not just enough to acquire skill without the funds to start up an entrepreneurship of your own these days of economic recession where unemployment rate in the country knows no bound. It is against this background that AG Mortgage Bank Plc, a foremost primary mortgage institution in Nigeria, at the weekend announced its readiness to partner Lashone Links skills acquisition centre, a subsidiary of Lashone Links Group of Companies comprising real estate development among others to grant loans to graduates of the centre who wish to become self-reliant by setting themselves up rather than waiting for employment that is never there.
Mr. Chibuzor Ifenkwe, AG mortgage bank’s head of business development, while speaking at the formal unveiling of the partnership deal before the graduates of the centre in Lagos, said the idea behind the partnership is to empower youths that are engaged in skills acquisition to be self-reliant.
According to Ifenkwe, the way forward out of recession in the country is not for people to solely depend on the government alone but be meaningfully engaged in job creation through skills acquisition. “We know very much that government cannot generate employment that would go round and when you see people that are ready to be supported, the bank is willing to do that”.
He informed that the bank decided to partner Lashone Links Business School because of its outstanding record of training and meaningfully engaging people in skill acquisition.
Explaining the modalities which the bank is using to assist the programme, he said the Victory Saving Account (VISA) will create an environment for persons who are being trained on skills acquisition to have access to loans from the bank that would enable them to start up their own businesses at the completion of their training, adding that the bank can also assist those that have started their own businesses but they still require money to boost their businesses.
Ifenkwe who disclosed that “There are two things we want to achieve through this product (VISA), which include to a encourage a savings culture and give back to the society”, therefore encouraged those undergoing training in Lashone Links skills acquisition centre and other meaningful Nigerians to utilize the opportunity the bank is creating through its VISA programme to make judicious use of it.
He commended the effort of the Group managing Director, Lashone Links Group of companies, Mr. Lanre Shonekan to see that people are meaningfully engaged to become business owners through the skills acquisition programme and assured him that the bank will continue to support the initiative.
Speaking earlier, Mr. Shonekan who said the centre has produced over 500 graduates in five years of the programme, noted that the partnership is to ensure self-reliance in business for those who wish to run their own businesses.
He informed that prospective beneficiaries of the loan will have to form themselves into a cooperative society as a platform through which they can access the loan from the PMI, as individuals will not be granted the loan.
