The Federal Government has announced plans for the empowerment of 5,000 members of the National Youth Service Corps with a sum of N10 million each to fund their entrepreneurial activities after completion of the scheme.
This was disclosed by the Minister of Youth Development, Dr. Jamila Ibrahim during the opening ceremony of the inaugural meeting of the NYSC management with the head of the Corps Producing Institute in Nigeria, held Monday in Abuja, according to Nairametrics.
Ibrahim pointed out that the financing initiative is aligned with future reforms of the National Youth Service Corps and differs from the Nigerian investment fund programme set for 2024.
According to her, she would inaugurate a team to carry out a review, restructuring, and reform of the National Youth Service Corps.
“The thrust of these reforms will be centred on imbuing participants with an entrepreneurship mindset and making skills development the core of the programme.
“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 and more beneficial to both the nation and the Corps members?
“So we envisaged 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 institutionalize the NYSC ventures and an investment and asset management outfit, she said.
The Minister explained that this initiative would enable the federal government to use and manage its vast NYSC assets effectively, making strategic investments in a variety of sectors. She listed the targeted sectors for these investments as agriculture, manufacturing, garment making, communication, and digital banking.
She underlined that this effort indicates the current administration’s commitment to investing in youth-led entrepreneurial ventures, positioning it as a vital step towards involving young people in Nigeria’s progress of becoming a trillion-dollar economy.
“We expect the ventures funded to emerge from this programme in various strategic sectors driving innovation and economic growth,” she added.
Furthermore, The Minister called on the participants to assume a significant responsibility of nurturing intellectual, ethical, and community competence in young people by being custodians of higher education in Nigeria.
