New Telegraph 
The Federal Government is planning to effectively utilise and manage the extensive assets of members of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) This is to be done by making strategic investments across various sectors. Disclosing this recently, Minister of Youth Development, Dr. Jamila Ibrahim, highlighted the targeted sectors for these investments as agriculture, manufacturing, garment making, communication, and digital banking.
She also announced plans to empower at least 5,000 members of NYSC with N10 million each to fund their entrepreneurial ventures after they complete the NYSC scheme. She spoke at the opening ceremony of the inaugural meeting of the NYSC management with heads of Corps Producing Institutions (CPI) in Nigeria, held in Abuja.She noted that this funding initiative aligned with the upcoming NYSC reforms and is distinct from the Nigerian Youth Investment Fund programme set for 2024.
According to her, there will be an inauguration of a team to undertake the review, restructuring and reforms of the NYSC.“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, 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,” she said.
She emphasised that this effort reflects the current administration’s commitment to investing in youth-led entrepreneurial ventures, positioning it as a crucial step towards involving young people in Nigeria’s progress towards becoming a trillion-dollar economy. “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,” she added.
