The Wife of Nigeria’s President, Mrs Aisha Muhammadu, has commended the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) Scheme for instituting a Skill Acquisition and Entrepreneurship Development (SAED) Programme for serving Corps members, saying skills are undeniably crucial in fast-tracking socio-economic growth and development of Nigeria as a nation.
She made this commendation while speaking at the closing ceremony of the weeklong SAED Festival organized to showcase entrepreneurial innovation, creativity and ingenuity among corps members.
The event held at Abuja on Thursday, October 19, 2017.
Mrs Buhari, who was represented by Dame Pauline Tallen, Former Deputy Governor of Plateau State, said the SAED Programme had confirmed the capacity of the NYSC to contribute towards government’s effort to address the problem of youth unemployment in Nigeria.
According to a statement by media aide to the Wife of the President, Mr. Sulaiman Haruna, copy of which was sent to The DEFENDER, Mrs Buhari enjoined the private sector to key into NYSC’s pool of resources to strategically reposition and deepen the nation’s presence in the global economy.
In his address, the Minister of Youths and Sports, Barrister Solomon Dalung, commended the NYSC and called on the corps to live up to the dream of its founding f
athers by inculcating the spirit of self-reliance in Nigerian youths through the SAED initiative, which, he said, was in line with the efforts of the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari at creating jobs for the teeming youths of Nigeria.
Speaking earlier, the Director-General of NYSC, Brig. Gen. Suleiman Kazaure, had said SAED was introduced in 2012 to empower corps members with skills for self-employment and wealth creation.
So far, Gen. Kazaure said 900,000 corps members had been sensitized under the programme, with 7000 establishing successful businesses.
The DG said the success of the SAED programme was a result of a concerted partnership his corps had with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Bank of Industry (BOI), Heritage Bank and a host of other bodies.
He therefore thanked all the organizations in the partnership for sharing NYSC’s vision and providing support, while calling on more organisations to join the initiative.
Gen. Kazaure appreciated the presence of Mrs Buhari as a morale booster for the corps members.
Highlight of the programme was the presentation of awards to best entries in the areas of fashion, bead making, cake design, ICT and a host of other vocations.
