The Director-General, National Youth Service Corps (NYSC), Brig-Gen Shuaibu Ibrahim, has commissioned a skills acquisition and entrepreneurship development centre at the NYSC permanent orientation camp in Sagamu, Ogun state.
The centre, which was constructed by the office of the Senior Special Assistant (SSA) to the President on Sustainable Development Goals, (SDGs), was in line with the objectives of the SDGs of providing skills for the teeming populace.
Speaking during the ceremony, the Director-General thanked the SSA for the kind gesture and assured that the facility would be judiciously utilised by the scheme.
He disclosed that the NYSC since its inception in 1973 has been one of the dynamic organisations in the country, hence its introduction of the Skills Acquisition and Entrepreneurship Development department in 2012, which is saddled with the responsibility of providing skills and entrepreneurship training for corps members.
He added that the whole idea was to make the corps members self-employed, in response to the dwindling opportunities for graduate employment.
The DG further disclosed that, since the introduction of SAED the NYSC has made tremendous progress in the training and empowerment of thousands of youths. One of the success of the programme, he said, was the facilitation of the building of SAED centre in Ekiti, Jigawa, Gombe and Nasarawa states.
While conducting the dignitaries round the facility, the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Sustainable Development Goals, Princess Adejoke, Orelop-Adefulire said that the centre was built in line with a request from the NYSC and the desire of Federal Government to achieve the sustainable development goals. She noted that the idea of the establishment of the centre was to provide opportunities for the training of corps members in various skills, which she said, were in high demand in the market, especially the building industry.
In his remarks, the Ogun state governor, who was represented at the commissioning ceremony by his deputy, Engr. Noimot Salako Oyedele, commended the SSA to the president on SDGs for the construction of the edifice. She also extolled the NYSC for its invaluable contributions to nation building over the years, and commended its current Director-General for his zeal in moving the scheme forward, since assumption of duty.
Nnenna.O
