By ZAKAA LAZARUS
The Director General (DG) of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC), Brigadier General Olakunle Nafiu, has reaffirmed the Scheme’s pivotal role in tackling youth unemployment in Nigeria.
He made this assertion while briefing Group 2 members of the Senior Executive Course 48, 2026, of National Institute of Policy and Strategic Studies (NIPSS), Kuru-Jos, who were are at NYSC Directorate Headquarters on a study tour.
The NYSC helmsman told the course participants that the Scheme had trained a total of 1,391,119 young graduates in different vocational skills between 2019 and 2025 under its Skill Acquisition and Entrepreneurship Development (SAED) programme.
Nafiu revealed that the SAED was introduced in 2012 in line with one of the objectives of the Scheme, which is “to enable Nigerian youths acquire the spirit of self-reliance by encouraging them to develop skills for self employment”.
He hailed the founding fathers of the Scheme for their foresight in designing the objective, which mandates the Scheme to empower Corps members with vocational and entrepreneurial skills, noting that they have turned out to be much needed in today’s Nigeria, where white-collar jobs are scarce.
“As at the time NYSC was established, jobs were readily available and companies were running after graduates that were turned out by the few tertiary institutions that existed then.
“Today, however, those opportunities are very scarce. Thankfully, the NYSC Act has given us the mandate to empower Corps members with entrepreneurial skills that will make then not just self-sufficient, but also employers of labour,” he said.
Nafiu commended government agencies and other organizations that partner with the NYSC in the implementation of the SAED programme through technical and funding support, especially by providing soft loans, grants and start-up kits for Corps entrepreneurs.
He also used the opportunity to call on NIPSS to support advocacy efforts for the establishment of the NYSC Trust Fund, noting that the Bill has already been passed by the National Assembly and is awaiting presidential assent.
“The NYSC Trust Fund Bill has been passed by the National Assembly and awaiting the assent of Mr. President. We will appreciate, if you could make it as part of your recommendations while presenting your report to the president.
“With the Trust Fund, we will be able to give every Corps member that passes through the SAED training adequate capital to start their business of interest at the end of the service year,” he said.
To complement the General Nafiu’s presentation, the course participants were shown a documentary highlighting success stories of young entrepreneurs who benefitted from the SAED initiative.
In his remarks, the Director General of NIPSS, Professor Ayo Omotayo, who led key officials of the institute and course participants on the tour, commended the NYSC for contributing towards reducing unemployment in the country through the SAED initiative.
Omotayo explained that the Course 48 study tour was guided by the theme “Economic Diversification and National Development: Leveraging Orange Economy and Entrepreneurship for Sustainable Growth and Development,” adding that the findings of the study would enable participants to present a blue print on tackling unemployment to the federal government.
“We deliberately chose NYSC for this study tour, having closely monitored your trajectory in the area of youth empowerment,” he said.
He also assured that part of the group’s recommendations to the government would be on the improvement the Scheme’s capacity to deliver on its mandate of youth empowerment.
