Kogi Youth Empowerment Grants: Ododo Approves N50m Monthly »

Kogi State Governor, Alhaji Ahmed Usman Ododo, has approved the allocation of N50 million monthly for the continuation of the state’s Youth Entrepreneurship and Business Grant Programme.

Ododo announced the funding commitment on Wednesday in Lokoja during the 2026 International Youth Day celebration and the Kogi Youth Entrepreneurship and Business Grant Programme, where over 200 young entrepreneurs, from each of the state’s 21 Local Government Areas, received N500,000, N200,000, N100,000 and N20,000 to support their businesses.

The governor described the intervention as an investment in the future of young people rather than charity, linking economic empowerment with efforts to address insecurity.

“Fighting insecurity can never be separated from expanding prosperity,” Ododo said, stressing the need to create legitimate pathways through which young people could “work, earn, build and belong.”

He said while there could be no justification for criminality, government also had a responsibility to address economic vulnerabilities that could expose young people to criminal networks.

According to him, his administration was deliberately shifting its youth development strategy away from dependence on government employment towards entrepreneurship, innovation and value creation.

“No government, no matter how well-intentioned, can employ every citizen,” the governor said, urging young Kogites to embrace entrepreneurship while government provides the necessary support, infrastructure, skills, capital and enabling environment.

Ododo said the grant programme was intended to transform ideas into businesses, businesses into employers and young entrepreneurs into contributors to the state’s economic growth.

He urged the beneficiaries to use the funds for their intended purposes, maintain proper financial records and grow their enterprises to a level where they could create employment for others.

“If one grant enables one young entrepreneur to employ five, ten or twenty other young people, then the impact of that grant has multiplied,” he said.

The governor also called on well-to-do individuals, organisations and groups interested in youth empowerment to channel their funds through the established process of the Ministry of Youth and Sports Development.

He said the approach would ensure that youth empowerment interventions were properly coordinated, monitored and directed towards genuine beneficiaries.

Ododo said his administration would continue to place young people at the centre of its development agenda, maintaining that the future of Kogi State could not be built without the generation that would inherit it.

“This is the Kogi we are rebranding,” the governor said, describing his vision as a state that empowers rather than abandons its young people and creates opportunities rather than excuses.

Earlier, the Commissioner for Youth and Sports Development, Hon. Monday Anyebe, described the N500,000 grant as the beginning of a continuous youth empowerment initiative rather than a one-off intervention.

Anyebe said the programme would be implemented in phases to enable more young Kogites with genuine aspirations and the capacity to establish meaningful enterprises to benefit.

He urged the 21 beneficiaries to treat the grants as seeds that must be nurtured into sustainable businesses.

“Do not consume the opportunity. Grow it,” the commissioner told the beneficiaries.

Anyebe also announced plans by the ministry to establish a Grant Supervisory and Monitoring Body to track beneficiaries, monitor the utilisation of funds, identify challenges and document the impact of the programme.

He said the monitoring mechanism would not be intended to intimidate beneficiaries but to provide guidance and ensure that the government’s investment produced measurable results.

Earlier, the Chairman of the programme’s screening committee, Abdulkadir Ali Keller, disclosed that more than 15,000 proposals were received during the one month the application portal remained open.

Keller said the screening was targeted at identifying applicants whose business proposals were realistic, viable and showed prospects for success.

He explained that priority was given to proposals with the potential to translate the financial support into sustainable businesses and economic opportunities.

The 2026 International Youth Day celebration was held under the theme, “Different Contexts, Common Aspirations,” reflecting the varied circumstances of young people across Kogi State and their shared aspirations for opportunity, dignity, productive work and economic independence.