The Director-General of NYSC, Brig.-Gen. Yu’shau Ahmed, says 38,433 youth corps members have established their own businesses through the scheme’s Skill Acquisition and Entrepreneurship Development (SAED) Programme.
He disclosed this on Monday in Abuja at the SAED Stakeholders’ Meeting, adding that the youth corps members had gone ahead to become employers of labour.
He said that through the programme, established 12 years ago, the scheme sensitised 3.306 million NYSC members on entrepreneurship development, with over 565,489 receiving various levels of training.
Also, 11,881 members were financially empowered by collaborating partners, he added.
He explained that with over 350,000 graduate youths mobilised in its fold annually, NYSC remained the most critical influencer of Nigerian youths as agents of unity, peace and development.
According to him, all hands must be on deck to enhance the scheme’s mandate of preparing youths for the task of driving the socio-economic development of the country as its emerging leaders.
The director-general listed some of the scheme’s achievements through the programme to include the construction and handover of well-equipped skill acquisition centres in various parts of the country.
Others are the ongoing collaboration with Access Bank, Unity Bank and Wema Bank on funding of businesses of youth corps members through competitive business plan development programmes.
He said “the winners are given grants, and the scheme undertakes quarterly monitoring to ensure that they are used for the intended purposes.
“Activate Success International Foundation has empowered 69 NYSC entrepreneurs with grants for business start-up through the Youth Entrepreneurship and Empowerment Programme (YEEP) and partnership with Kudimata and NNPC Foundation on financial literacy and empowerment.
“So far, 32,402 youth corps members have been trained on eight modules in ‘kick-starting my business fundamentals’.
“The training will give 1,100 members across Nigeria access to grants powered by NNPC Foundation to kick-start their businesses.
“Another gain of our collaboration with Kudimata is the acceptance by the Corporate Affairs Commission to register over 30,000 businesses of NYSC members at 50 per cent discount.”
Ahmed also said that the NYSC-Zeenab Foods Partnership yielded an opportunity for 30 youth corps members to export 69 tonnes of dried split ginger to China through the Nigeria Exporters Club Society.
He added that Zeenab Foods also trained 8,731 members in export business, giving them the opportunity to be trained in the export of commodities, thereby contributing to the export drive of the Federal Government.
The NYSC boss, who commended the efforts of partners for the feats achieved, said leveraging on broad-based partnership with competent organisations was
indeed yielding quality results.
He, however, appealed to existing and prospective partners to support the scheme’s renewed efforts to take the implementation of the programme to the next level, through technical and material support.
He said “we will especially appreciate your interventions toward addressing needs and challenges in the areas of capacity building trainings for youth corps members in entrepreneurship and business development.
“Provision of mentorship and apprenticeship platforms for corps members and provision of scholarships for corps members’ training as most cannot afford the cost of training and data for online training.”
The Director of the SAED Programme, Mrs Ngozi Nwatara, said the programme’s mission is to create a platform that would facilitate access to requisite skills and resources necessary for successful entrepreneurship as means of enhancing national development.
This, she said, was with a vision to develop a culture of self-reliance in the youths for sustainable job creation.
She, however, said that the programme’s prospects include the use of Public-Private Partnerships to construct additional SAED centre and technological hubs in the six geopolitical zones and make them functional.
“We hope to get banks, non-governmental organisations and international organisations to give more scholarships/grants to youth corps entrepreneurs.
“Also, for banks to hasten timely processing of loan applications of youth corps members to ensure they benefit before the end of the one-year service.”
He also advocated the creation of conducive atmosphere (ease of doing business) for youth corps entrepreneurs by ensuring free incorporation of business names and tax rebate/zero tax returns for five years.
Others are hitch-free export process and zero export fees for corps exporters for five years, free inspection and licencing of products and services for five years and free annual quality assurance inspection and filling for five years.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the stakeholders’ meeting is aimed at reviewing programme performance, reports of previous year and
proffer workable solutions. (NAN)
