SAED Impact: NYSC empowers 3.18m Corps members with over 30,000 registered businesses

*Brigadier-General Olakunle Nafiu, Director-General, National Youth Service Corps, commends partners and stakeholders in the SAED programme for collaborating with the NYSC to mitigate the scourge of youth unemployment in Nigeria

Isola Moses | ConsumerConnect

The Management of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) have said the Skill Acquisition and Entrepreneurship Development (SAED) training for Corps members is being reviewed through standardisation of the curriculum for much deeper impact.

ConsumerConnect reports Brigadier-General Olakunle Nafiu, Director-General of NYSC, disclosed this in his address at the 2025 second SAED stakeholders’ summit held in Abuja, FCT.

PenCom begins payment of N758bn to retirees, recovers billions from 49 defaulting employers

The theme of the stakeholders’ summit is: “Empowering a Generation: Building Competence for the Future Workplace and Enterprise Through Impactful Partnerships”.

Brigadier-General Nafiu said the NYSC had embarked on a comprehensive digital transformation of the SAED programme as a pathway to combating youth unemployment, said the new curriculum included skills like Artificial Intelligence (AI) and mobile application development, among others in Nigeria.

Insight into Corps members’ participation in 3MTT programme

The Director-General of the scheme disclosed that Corps members were being mainstreamed into the Federal Government’s 3 Million Technical Talent (3MTT) programme, as well as global remote work opportunities through initiatives, such as Outsource to Nigeria, NYSC jobs.ng, and the SAED SME toolkit.

READ ALSO CNII: Network Operators Laud NSCDC For Protection Of Telecoms Infrastructure

Alleged Sleaze: Dangote Dares NMDPRA CEO Ahmed, Submits Petition To ICPC For Probe

Nigeria’s 4,000 New Telecoms Towers Will Boost Security Surveillance, Rural Connectivity And Commerce –Minister

Describing the SAED programme as a pillar of youth empowerment in Nigeria, the NYSC Chief Executive discloses that over 3.18 million Corps members had completed entrepreneurship and workplace readiness training since 2012, with over 30,000 businesses formally registered with the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC).

He enthused: “They are employing others and contributing to the Gross Domestic Product while demonstrating that our youths are capable change agents.”

Nafiu as well emphasised the need to focus more on competence, mastery of the SAED skills, and digital fluency by Corps members, to become highly competitive in the rapidly changing world.

Impact of N2bn MSME fund for Corps Entrepreneurs

Underscoring the strategic importance of the initiative, Brigadier-General Nafiu described the N2 billion MSME loan fund for Corps Entrepreneurs, recently launched in partnership with the Bank of Industry (BoI), as a landmark achievement in the entrepreneurship development drive.

He took the opportunity of the programme to commend the founding fathers of the NYSC for their foresight in anticipating and laying the foundation for entrepreneurial training.

He stated: “The unemployment rate as at 1973 was put at 1.9%; but today it is about 6.9%. Nigeria has many young people who lack employability skills.

The Director-General said: “We thank our partners and stakeholders in the SAED programme for collaborating with the NYSC to mitigate the scourge of youth unemployment in Nigeria.

“We must be committed to empowering a generation whose innovation and enterprise will shape the country’s future into prosperity.

“Equipping our young people is not just a programme, it is a national assignment, and NYSC is fully committed to it.”

Nafiu as well urged participants in the meeting, in Abuja, to renew strategies for equipping Corps members with the necessary skills, creativity, and confidence to live in the contemporary world.

Earlier in his remarks, Kehinde Aremu-Cole, Director of SAED, had appreciated the stakeholders at the summit for driving transformation across multiple sectors such as technology and digital skills, creative industries, entrepreneurship development, financial empowerment, and agricultural revitalisation.

Aremu-Cole described as laudable all the training, grants, and mentorship sessions they had delivered previously.

According to him, all those had shaped Nigeria’s future through the Corps members.

He, however, urged them to create special-purpose funding pathways that would further turn Nigerian youths’ desires and skills into productive enterprises to create wealth and add value to the country’s economy.

Aremu-Cole averred: “Together, we are not just running a programme: we are building a generation.

“Let us keep empowering, and let us keep believing in the potential of our young people.”

Kindly Share This Story