The federal government is set to begin the restructuring and refocusing of the multi-billion naira Youth Enterprise With Innovation in Nigeria, YOUWIN, programme.

A director in the Ministry of Finance, Salisu Dambatta, made this known in a statement on Tuesday, adding that consultations are ongoing with beneficiaries and other stakeholders with the objective of injecting new ideas for the sustainability of the programme.

The ‘YOUWIN’ programme was initiated in 2011 during the Goodluck Jonathan Administration and under it, 18,000 young entrepreneurs have been trained in various aspects of Small and Medium Enterprises management and business skills.

At least 3,900 of them, including 1,200 women were each given non-repayable take-off grants ranging from one million to ten million naira to start-up businesses of their choice.

Dambatta said “The third edition of the programme, which is still running with 1,500 beneficiaries, has received the sum of N11.2 billion in funding, and so far, grants totaling N7.4 billion have been disbursed to awardees.” He added that “in June 2016 alone, the sum of N1.687 billion was paid to 638 awardees.”

Minister of Finance, Kemi Adeosun had said the YOUWIN programme had to be restructured to ensure efficiency, transparency, and accountability in investing the capital grants given to the beneficiaries by the federal government

She reiterated that government will meet all its commitments under the YOUWIN programme, but stressed that due diligence would be carried out on every beneficiary before disbursements.

The ministry of finance which has been running the programme since inception has scheduled a consultative meeting for July 22, in which representatives of the beneficiaries from the six geo-political zones and other stakeholders are expected to chart a way forward for the programme.