The Lagos State Employment Trust Fund has created over 320,000 direct and indirect jobs, disbursed more than N15 billion to over 20,000 small and medium enterprises, preserved 173,000 jobs at risk of elimination, and maintained a 94.53 percent loan repayment rate over its ten-year operating history, according to an impact report presented by Executive Secretary Feyisayo Alayande at a media briefing in Ikeja.
Alayande said the fund, established in 2016 to address unemployment and support entrepreneurship in Lagos, had operated on the principle that access rather than ability was the primary barrier separating those who built successful enterprises from those who did not, providing capital, skills training, market connections, and professional network support to residents who possessed the talent but lacked the ecosystem to convert it into sustainable livelihoods.
She highlighted the repayment rate as the fund’s most revealing single metric, saying it demonstrated that Nigerians treated with dignity and given genuine opportunities honored their commitments at rates that commercial lenders would consider exceptional, and that Lagos entrepreneurs were not a risk to be managed but an opportunity to be capitalized.
Beyond lending, the fund supported more than 82,000 small businesses through capacity-building programs, trained and placed more than 30,000 young people in employment opportunities, and through the Lagos Innovates initiative supported over 1,200 technology startups and developed more than 3,300 technology professionals. The fund worked through partnerships with GIZ, UNDP, King’s Trust International, Lafarge, and multiple government ministries, with those collaborations expanding both geographic reach and program depth.
Alayande announced the Lagos Employment Summit 4.0 scheduled for the fourth quarter of 2026, bringing together government, private sector, development partners, and civil society to chart the fund’s direction for a second decade oriented toward deeper capital access, expanded youth training, and stronger support for technology-driven enterprises.
