The Federal Government has disclosed intentions to support a minimum of 5,000 National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) members by providing them with N10 million each to finance their entrepreneurial endeavours upon completion of the NYSC program.
The Minister of Youth Development, Dr. Jamila Ibrahim, revealed this information while speaking at the commencement of the first gathering of the NYSC management with leaders of Corps Producing Institutions (CPI) in Nigeria, which took place on Monday in Abuja.
She said, “The thrust of these reforms will be centred on imbuing participants with an entrepreneurship mindset and making skills development the core of the programme.”
“The National Youth Skills programme will play a pivotal role in these reforms. While typically a 12-month programme this year, we’ll start a six months abridged version.
“We expect the ventures funded to emerge from this programme in various strategic sectors driving innovation and economic growth,”
“Though that is already part of the objectives carried out by the scheme, the aim is to partner with it to strengthen the mandate.
“How do we make the scheme more efficient, more effective and more beneficial to both the nation and the Corps members?
“So, we envision a future where the NYSC programme is not only self-sustaining, but also a revenue generating programme within the next five years.
“To achieve this, we will institutionalise the NYSC ventures as an investment and asset management outfit.”
