Inadequate skill training facilities, start-up capital and insufficient access to mentorship and counselling have been identified as some of the challenges militating against the National Youth Service Corps, NYSC , Skill Acquisition and Entrepreneurship Development programme in Nigeria.
The Director-General of the NYSC, Major General Shuaibu Ibrahim said robust partnership with private sector organisations and multilateral collaborations are avenues to surmount these challenges.
He disclosed this in his address at the 2022 NYSC Stakeholders meeting, Desk Officers training and Debriefing Conference held in Abuja.
He said the Scheme has made significant progress in implementing the SAED programme over the last three years, despite numerous challenges.
“Out of myriads of challenges such as the COVID-19 pandemic, we have seized opportunities to showcase the entrepreneurial abilities of the Corps Members.
“Since 2019, partnerships and collaborations with different organisations have given new impetus to the empowerment of Corps Members for self employment and for national development.
However, we must not rest on our oars, if we are to sustain and build on the accomplishments of our recent past,” the DG said.
Ibrahim commended the stakeholders who have sustained and expanded their sponsorship of empowerment programmes in the NYSC.
He urged participants at the forum to engage in deliberations that will lead to the expansion of current partnerships and the development of new ones.
He added that the global downturn of the economy has greatly affected corporate entities’ commitment to corporate social responsibility.
“This is one of the reasons the NYSC Management is actively promoting the prospects of establishing the NYSC Trust Fund which will make the Scheme self-sustaining and also reduce unemployment, poverty, youth restiveness and criminality.”
The NYSC Director, Skill Acquisition and Entrepreneurship Development Department, Mr. Hilary Nasamu in his welcome address said collaborations with stakeholders in the last three years has led to increment in the scale of youth empowerment through SAED.
He poured encomiums on Bank of Industry, Unity Bank, British American Tobacco Nigeria Foundation, Access Bank, Leventis Foundation Nigeria, NYSC Foundation, Enterprise Development Centre/Pan Atlantic University, German International Corporation, Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria, among others.
“The AMCON Management through the Managing Director’s Annual NYSC Entrepreneurship Initiative kick-started in 2021 a youth empowerment programme through which three Corps winners are given business grants on N500,000:00 each annually. This no doubt has added to the rising profile of our Corps empowerment programme,” Nasamu said.
