Forum partners bank to advance youth participation in governance, leadership role

The Youth in Parliament Forum ( YIPF ) has announced a strategic partnership with the TAJ Bank for greater youth inclusion in governance and leadership role for the advancement of quality legislation for businesses The Director General of YIPF Forum , Hon. Tony Nwulu stated this on Thursday in Abuja during a visit by the […]

The Youth in Parliament Forum ( YIPF ) has announced a strategic partnership with the TAJ Bank for greater youth inclusion in governance and leadership role for the advancement of quality legislation for businesses

The Director General of YIPF Forum , Hon. Tony Nwulu stated this on Thursday in Abuja during a visit by the delegation of TAJ Bank led by the Managing Director, Mr. Hamid Joda to the YIPF premises.

Nwulu stated that the Youth in Parliament Forum is a Nonpartisan political pressure group with the primary objective of supporting young Nigerians to achieve their political ambitions, irrespective of their political parties or affiliation.

He said the Take Action Campaign (TAC) is one of the major initiatives of YIPF with the aim of putting competent and vibrant youths in strategic legislative positions in order to build a government that better reflects the demographics and the needs of its citizens, including the private sector.

“The point is that we need to go the extra mile and the quality of legislation that happens also affects corporate organizations, because if quality legislations are not being introduced, it affects your businesses. So that’s what we essentially do.

“We also have been procuring deals with corporations. We have some deals currently on the table, one of which is a partnership with a Chinese car company to train 1,000 young people on Electric Vehicles (EV) repairs. These trainings will be offered to youth free of charge.”

On his part, the Managing Director of TAJ Bank Plc, Ahmed Joda expressed the readiness of the bank to partner with YIPF to achieve its goals and be at the frontline in youth participation and inclusion in governance.

He promised to support the initiative in creating the right environment for businesses to thrive and enrich the capacity of the younger generations in leadership roles and nation building.

Mr. Joda said there is a need to inculcate attitudinal change, value reorientation and national consciousness among the youth for a better society.

“You know, when we spoke in my office, when we had a discussion on the initiatives, the Youth in Parliament Forum, I never thought it was this elaborate and with a clear vision and strong sense of purpose.

“I mean the mission of vision is as clear as night and day. And entirely as I see it, a non-partisan kind of initiative. It’s out to change a lot of things that we see in Nigeria today. Because what are the things that drive the economy? The major things that drive the economy are the policies, the laws that you have in an economy.

“How good are your laws? How good are your policies? And that is what creates the right kind of environment for businesses to thrive. And it’s very important for those who make the laws to upskill.

“And of course, that is what you are bringing to the table. Now, we’ve never had this kind of initiative in all the years that we’ve had democracy, since democracy returned. So I think this team really deserves a round of applause.

“I want to assure you that we will partner with you and we will support this initiative and we want to be at the forefront because for us, we believe, at least for myself and the co-founder, we believe there is something special about being a Nigerian and I’m being very honest about it. I think that we really need to drive national consciousness and really appreciate the fact that we are Nigerians.

“If you know what you are doing and if you have vision, you have focus and you are determined that you are resilient, being a Nigerian is like winning the Ovarian Lottery. Because look at Taj Bank, Taj Bank is an example. Taj Bank was an idea on paper.

“We were in FCMB, First City Monument Bank, we were employees in First City Monument Bank and then we sat down one afternoon and envisioned setting up a bank in Nigeria. It was just an idea on paper and then we started putting the building blocks, appointing a consultant, raising capital, and submitting when we finally raised the capital. It was very difficult. So that’s where resilience comes in. But by the time we did that, we submitted it to the central bank. But at the end of the day, we got the license and we opened the shop and we started running. And today we have more than 1,600 Nigerians in the employment of TAJ Bank”