Nigerian president, Goodluck Jonathan has launched Venture Capital Fund worth $50 million dubbed, ‘You Win!’ Small and Medium Enterprise – Growth Fund.

On the same event, the president also launched the fourth round of the Youth Enterprise with Innovation in Nigeria. This is expected to support 1,500 more entrepreneurs along with the SME-Growth fund, which is a private equity fund for entrepreneurs.

President Jonathan said that this programmes will enable enterprenuers to take their business to the next level. He added that the administration of the fund entails hard work for the government so as to get more investors.

He added further that the newly launched fund will be managed by independent fund managers together with the government.

Appreciating the efforts of the Minister of Finaace, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, the Nigerian president could not help but take his delight in the 22000 jobs that had been created by the first and second editions of YouWin!

He said the he was hopeful that in the fourth edition, the total number of jobs would double the current number. The president, who had earlier inspected an exhibition by beneficiaries of the programme, expressed happiness over the quality of products which, he said, were of international standard.

In her speech, Ms. Okonjo-Iweala said that the disbursement of funds in the third phase of the programme would commence shortly as the hitches had been cleared.

She added that another 1,500 entrepreneurs would be supported with grants of between one million naira and 10 million naira to enable them to improve or run their businesses, expand them and create jobs.