The national chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Nentawe Yilwatda, has launched a ₦280m empowerment scheme targeting more than 1,400 young Nigerians, distributing tools, equipment and cash grants in what he described as a practical step towards tackling unemployment and widening economic inclusion.
At an event in Jos, the Plateau-born politician presided over the rollout of the “Renewed Hope Scale-Up Programme”, handing out 727 sets of equipment ranging from tricycles and sewing machines to welding kits, phone repair tools and point-of-sale devices backed with startup capital.
The initiative, framed as a grassroots intervention, also saw tiered cash disbursements totalling ₦280m. Sixty beneficiaries received ₦1m each, while others collected between ₦100,000 and ₦500,000, in a bid to inject liquidity into small enterprises and stimulate local economies.
Yilwatda cast the programme as an extension of the economic vision of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, linking it to broader ambitions of job creation and poverty reduction. He argued that empowering young people with both tools and capital would accelerate business formation and reduce reliance on scarce formal employment.
“Small businesses can grow into global enterprises,” he told beneficiaries, urging them to treat the support as a foundation rather than a one-off intervention.
The APC chairman also used the platform to highlight the administration’s wider economic agenda, pointing to large-scale infrastructure projects — including new transport corridors, rail expansion and coastal highways — as the backbone of a proposed $1tn economy. Such investments, he said, would unlock productivity and expand market access for emerging businesses.
He pledged that beneficiaries would not be left unsupported, outlining plans for monitoring and evaluation as well as access to financing through institutions such as the Bank of Industry and export training via the Nigerian Export Promotion Council.
Representing the Plateau state government, the deputy governor, Josephine Piyo, praised the intervention as a tangible example of leadership delivering material benefits. She urged recipients to deploy the resources with discipline, warning that the long-term success of the scheme would depend on how effectively the funds and equipment are used.
The programme reflects a familiar political strategy in Nigeria: combining direct welfare-style support with longer-term economic messaging. Whether such interventions translate into durable business growth — or remain episodic relief — may ultimately determine their impact as the country edges towards another election cycle.
