Central Bank of Nigeria
Expression of Interest (EOI) for the Establishment of Entrepreneurship Development Centres (EDCS) in three Geopolitical Zones of Nigeria: North East, North Central and South South
Introduction
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) intends to establish additional Entrepreneurship Development Centres (EDCs) in the three remaining geo-political zones of Nigeria; North- East, North- Central and South-South. This is aimed at beefing up the existing ones earlier established for the purpose of ensuring the sustainable supply of skillful entrepreneurs that will be able to take advantage of available credits for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises and the various financing programmes in the Banking Sector, The pilot phase of the three existing EDCs in: North-West ‘(Kano), South-East (Onitsha) and South- West (Lagos) took off between 2008 and 2010.
2. THE OBJECTIVES OF THE EDCS
The CBN-supported EDCs which would target those with secondary and tertiary education has the following specific objectives:
- To develop entrepreneurship spirit in Nigerians and provide insight into the tools, techniques and framework for managing business enterprise, including production, marketing, personnel and finance.
- To develop skills of would-be-entrepreneurs to successfully start, expand, diversify and manage business enterprises as well as link them with financial institutions for accessing start-up capital especially from the microfinance banks.
- To generate employment opportunities for Nigerians in pursuance of the provisions of the National Economic Empowerment and Development Strategy (NEEDS) and recently Vision 2020.
- To raise a new class of entrepreneurs/business owners, who can successfully manage MSMEs that will provide the bride for future industrialization of the country, and also be able to compete in the global market.
Applications are invited from interested State Governments within the zones to bid for the establishment of the EDCs in their respective States.
3. Criteria for the Selection of Participating States
Any State wishing to collaborate with the CBN for the establishment of the EDC for the zone in its domain is required to meet the under listed criteria:
1. Provide the following facilities to support the smooth and effective operations and delivery of the required services to trainees:
- Physical Structure office, training hails appropriate furniture etc
- Training Materials (lecture instruction materials, computers etc
- Equipment for hands-on training
- Other Institutional support Infrastructure that will be incidental to the smooth delivery of the Centre’s objective;
2. Provide incubation Centres that will offer on-site business facilities to aid trainees in session and enable the trainees have hands-on experiences on their chosen vocations;
3. Provide incubation facilities that focuses on the end of the business development cycle by providing experienced business support, high quality facilities and management services for business start-ups;
4. Financial commitment to establish start-ups or expansion of businesses of their graduates;
5. Establish the Centre in locations that will provide the maximum impact and access to the beneficiaries in the Zone;
6. Establish industrial cluster for the purpose of sharing common resources particularly infrastructure;
7. Provide counter-part funding and evidence of how the Center will be self financing and sustainable overtime at the exit of the CBN;
8. Demonstrate that it can develop a wide reaching and comprehensive awareness programme aimed at providing information on the benefits of the EDC, particularly among the youths in the State,
interested State Governments within the target zones; North- East, North- Central and South- South are hereby invited to submit their EOI for the establishment of the Entrepreneurship Development Centres to the address below, not later than 25th August, 2011.
The Director,
Development Finance Department
Central Bank of Nigeria,
Corporate Headquarters,
Central Business District
P.M.B. 0187, Gorki
Abuja – Nigeria.
Signed: Management
