NATIONAL Youth Service Corps (NYSC) has urged corps members to take advantage of the Skills Acquisition and Entrepreneurship Programme which they went through during service year to earn a living.

The scheme’s Coordinator in Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Mrs Walida Sadique-Isa,
made the call in an interview with News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Friday in Abuja.

Sadique-Isa said that the aim of the programme was to prepare corps members for entrepreneurship and to make them employers of labour, rather than job seekers.

She said that the NYSC Skills Acquisition Entrepreneurship Department (SAED) was created to sensitise and mobilise 200,000 young graduates for skill acquisition annually, noting that the programme had recorded considerable success over the years.

The programmed, she added, was also to facilitate the training and mentoring of 100,000 young graduates in entrepreneurship development for self-reliance, among other functions.

She explained that “through SAED, we teach corps members how to engage in agro-allied business, poultry,  welding, horticulture, beauty therapy, fish farming, among others.

“The idea is to build entrepreneurs out of them after the service year, so that they can become employers of labour instead of looking for white collar jobs.

“We do not have problems with them seeking paid employment, but within the time they would be looking for jobs, they could engage in skills acquired during NYSC.”

The FCT coordinator said some government financial institutions were collaborating with NYSC to ensure the success of the programme by providing loans to beneficiaries.

She added that “Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Bank of Industry (BoI) and Bank of Agriculture have fully keyed into the programme and providing credit facility to beneficiaries.

“What the corp members need to provide as collateral is just their NYSC discharge certificates.”

She assured that the CBN had also reviewed interest rate on such loans from nine per cent to zero per cent as further encouragement for members to participate. (NAN)

– July 5, 2019 @ 14:19 GMT |