Unity Bank Plc has said it will continue to contribute to the growth of entrepreneurship and boost job creation in Nigeria.

It said it had commenced the third edition of its entrepreneurship development initiative, also known as ‘Corpreneurship’ challenge, for the National Youth Service Corps, 2020 batch B, stream 1B corps members.

The bank said this in a statement on Friday entitled, ‘Unity Bank holds third edition of Corpreneurship challenge, empowers corps members with business grant.’

It said the challenge featured a mentorship programme in which participating corps members engaged in developing business plans to make a sales pitch that could earn them matching grants.

The bank said this presented an opportunity for corps members with outstanding business ideas to receive N12m worth of grant to pursue their ideas.

According to the statement, the pilot scheme is currently being held in three states, namely Lagos, Edo and Ogun, as well as the Federal Capital Territory, with plans to expand to 10 more locations in the second phase.

To ensure the success of the scheme, Unity Bank, in collaboration with Skill Acquisition Entrepreneur Development of the NYSC, embarked on sensitisation of the corps members deployed to the selected states at their various orientation camps to facilitate participation in the challenge, it said.

Commenting on the initiative, the Divisional Head, Retail, SME and E-Business, Mr Olufunwa Akinmade, said the challenge was launched in 2019 as a value addition to the youth market.