The National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) is overhauling its Skill Acquisition and Entrepreneurship Development (SAED) programme through the standardisation of its curriculum to deliver deeper and more sustainable impact for Corps Members.
The NYSC Director General, Brigadier General Olakunle Nafiu, disclosed this in his address at the 2025 second SAED stakeholders’ summit held in Abuja.
The summit was themed “Empowering a Generation: Building Competence for the Future Workplace and Enterprise Through Impactful Partnerships.”
Nafiu said the Scheme has embarked on a comprehensive digital transformation of the SAED programme as a pathway to combating youth unemployment.
He explained that the new curriculum incorporates contemporary skills such as artificial intelligence and mobile application development, among others.
He further disclosed that Corps Members are being mainstreamed into the Federal Government’s 3 Million Technical Talent (3MTT) programme, as well as global remote work opportunities through initiatives including Outsource to Nigeria, NYSC jobs.ng and the SAED SME toolkit.
Describing SAED as a pillar of youth empowerment in Nigeria, the Director General said more than 3.18 million Corps Members have completed entrepreneurship and workplace readiness training since 2012, with over 30,000 businesses formally registered with the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC).
“They are employing others and contributing to the Gross Domestic Product while demonstrating that our youths are capable change agents,” he staed.
Nafiu stressed the need to place greater emphasis on competence, mastery of SAED skills and digital fluency to make Corps Members highly competitive in a rapidly evolving global economy.
MSME Loan Fund
He also described the ₦2 billion MSME loan fund for Corps entrepreneurs recently launched in partnership with the Bank of Industry (BoI), as a landmark achievement in the drive to strengthen entrepreneurship development.
The NYSC Director General hailed the founding fathers of the Scheme for their foresight in anticipating the need for entrepreneurial training, noting that it was captured in one of the core objectives of the NYSC.
“The unemployment rate as at 1973 was put at 1.9%, but today it is about 6.9%. Nigeria has many young people who lack employability skills.
“We thank our partners and stakeholders in the SAED programme for collaborating with the NYSC to mitigate the scourge of youth unemployment in Nigeria.
“We must be committed to empowering a generation whose innovation and enterprise will shape the country’s future into prosperity.
“Equipping our young people is not just a programme, it is a national assignment and NYSC is fully committed to it,” he said.
Nafiu urged participants at the summit to renew strategies aimed at equipping Corps Members with the necessary skills, creativity and confidence required to thrive in the contemporary world.
Earlier, the Director of SAED, Kehinde Aremu-Cole, expressed appreciation to stakeholders for driving transformation across multiple sectors, including technology and digital skills, creative industries, entrepreneurship development, financial empowerment and agricultural revitalisation.
Aremu-Cole described the trainings, grants and mentorship sessions previously delivered by partners as laudable, noting that they are shaping Nigeria’s future through Corps Members.
He called on stakeholders to create special-purpose funding pathways that would help translate skills and aspirations into productive enterprises.
“Together, we are not just running a programme: we are building a generation.
“Let us keep empowering, and let us keep believing in the potentials of our young people,” he said.