*The Federal Government of Nigeria says the imminent reform is intended to reposition the National Youth Service Corps scheme as a skill-oriented, productivity-driven, youth-empowering institution that directly supports the administration’s ambition of building a $1 trillion economy
Isola Moses | ConsumerConnect
The Nigerian Government has hinted that the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) scheme is entering a new era, as the Federal Executive Council (FEC) recently approved a holistic reform of the 53-year-old agency.
ConsumerConnect reports that as part of the approval, FEC has directed the Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF) and the Ministry of Youths Development to amend the NYSC Act and its regulations to reflect all the approved reform measures, enabling immediate implementation of the new framework.
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The government said under the reform, the NYSC would be led by a civilian in its operational leadership, while the Military would continue to handle security for Corps members across the West African country.
The FEC also noted the policy shift is intended to reposition the NYSC as a skill-oriented, productivity-driven, youth-empowering institution that directly supports the administration’s ambition of building a $1 trillion economy.
The government established the NYSC scheme by decree No.24 of May 22, 1973, in a bid to reconstruct, reconcile, and rebuild the country after the Nigerian Civil war “with a view to the proper encouragement and development of common ties among the youths of Nigeria and the promotion of national unity”.
Brigadier-General Olakunle Nafiu is the current Director-General of NYSC.
Core objective of repositioning NYSC scheme, by Presidential aide
Expatiating more on the ongoing reform, Ms. Hadiza Bala-Usman, Special Adviser to the President on Policy Coordination, said that there was a need for us to intervene to build the present ambition of a $1 trillion economy by repositioning the NYSC as a civilian-led, skill-oriented, productivity-driven, and youth-empowering national institution.
Bala-Usman explained: “These, we need to strengthen the human capital development to enhance the workforce that is needed for us to promote and align with our national development.
“The reform areas speak to all the strategic aspects of NYSC, starting from the area of the main area of deployment.”
She also stated: “How are you registering in the NYSC? What modality is being used to post you to several states? How are we recognising the areas where we have security challenges?
“What constitutes the period with which youth corps members are in camp?”
11 Core streams for National Service
Bala-Usman said that the government desired to recognise people’s skill set, and recognise what it is that Nigeria needs from the Nigerian youths after graduation.
The Special Adviser to the President on Policy Coordination further noted: “We’ve segmented the NYSC across 11 different core streams.
“We have looked to see what are the areas that exist for Nigerian youth that Nigerian youth are interested in.”
Bala-Usman said: “So, we looked to see how many streams can be done by stream, I mean the type of additional training we can provide you as a graduate, in having graduated from the University.
“So, within the orientation camp, there is a new structure where you have the first two weeks, which speaks to laying a foundation on civic responsibility.”
She equally said: “You’ll be made aware of what it is that civic duties mean, our national values, leadership development.
“The next two weeks, we would look to career mapping, basic accounting literacy skills, business planning, and access to finance. How do we access finance?”
The Presidential aide disclosed: “And then we intend to introduce a structured career day programme to enable corps members engage directly with the public.
“But importantly, the final two weeks, which is a minimal period, we intend to have a focused corps stream-specific training.”
She stated: “This aligns with the corps members designated stream based on his choice, based on his academic background and skill profile.
“We’ve designated 11 core streams across NYSC.”
According to her, when a graduate comes in as a youth Corps member, they would be able to pick which stream they want to participate in.
She, therefore, unveiled available streams to include the agric corps, medical corps, education corps, tech and digital corps, legal corps, public service corps, infrastructure Corps, green corps, enterprise corps, creative economy corps, and paramilitary and security corps.
Bala-Usman as well noted: “So, each Corps member, once he’s in, once he has uploaded, and he has been recognised and accepted as a Corps member, he’s required to pick one of those corps, and once he registers in that, then we recognise him as a medical corps, and certain trainings will be given for each of those corps within the two weeks.
“What is important is Mr President, in his usual bold and courageous way, has taken on this holistic reform of the NYSC, which has never been done in the last 53 years of its establishment.
“NYSC will be civilian-led with clarity of the fact that we need to build the skill set of our youth to enable them function and support the government in building a $1 trillion economy.”