NYSC urges corps members to take advantage of SAED

Mr Mohammed Momoh, Lagos State Coordinator, National Youth Service Corps (NYSC), has advised corps members to take advantage of the Skill Acquisition and Entrepreneurship Development (SAED) programme of NYSC to become self-reliant.

Momoh gave advice in an interview with our correspondent on Thursday in Lagos.

He told corps members to take skill acquisition programmes since white-collar jobs had become difficult to secure.

“The motive of the programme is to refine your skills as far as entrepreneurship and vocational skill are concerned.

“This is because we (NYSC) are mindful of the fact that you can start small while thinking big.

“A day in a week has been set aside for post-camp training for a holistic apprenticeship programme.

“The NYSC has partnered the CBN, International Labour Organisation, Bank of Industries, Lagos State Empowerment Trust Fund, among others, to ensure corps members have access start-up capital for businesses,” he said.

Mrs Rachael Idaewor, Assistant Director, SAED, Lagos State, said that the programme was put in place to motivate corps members to be self-employed.

Idaewor said that the NYSC had also secured sponsorship from Diamond Bank for outstanding corps members to deepen their entrepreneurial skills through an initiative tagged: “Lion’s Den.”

She said that at the Lion’s Den, corps members would come together to map out business plans.

“Experts are engaged to assess the business plans and select the best five which will be projected to the whole camp for others to learn from,” he said.

Mr Lawrence Anaweokhai, Assistant Director, SAED, NYSC Headquarters, said that more than one million corps members completed the NYSC in-camp training as at December 2017.

“Out of that figure, 466,879 have completed the post-camp training while 12,061 established one form of business or the other since 2012.

“The BoI has so far disbursed over N500 million as loans to 345 corps members while the CBN disbursed N15 million to seven corps members as at December 2016,” he said.

Anaweokhai added that the Bankers Committee Funds gave N5 million to two corps members in April while the First City Monument Bank had so far provided about N540 million credit to 11,045 corps members.