Recently, management of the National Youth Service Corps advocated the establishment of the National Youth Service Corps Trust Fund ( NYSCTF).
The trust fund is expected to, among others, address the infrastructural deficits besetting the scheme, as well as provide start-up capitals for interested corps members to drive their business initiatives under the scheme’s Skill Acquisition and Entrepreneurship Development programme.
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In almost 49 years, the National Youth Service Corps has remained a beacon of national unity. Corps members have continued to settle down after service in their respective communities and states of deployment, thus, fostering national unity and integration.
Successive batches of corps members have continued to leave indelible imprints in the spheres of education, health, agriculture and some national assignments.
Unarguably, the centrality of the scheme in overall national development cannot be overemphasised, which demands an all-round protection of this important national asset.
Indeed, one of the greatest achievements of the scheme in recent times is the prioritisation of the skill acquisition programme, with a department established to coordinate its activities.
There is no gainsaying the fact that this programme, which has been well driven and coordinated by the NYSC management, has become a veritable gateway to self-reliance for corps members.
Interestingly, Bank of Industry, Central Bank of Nigeria, Access Bank, Unity Bank, NYSC Foundation, in addition to others, are in collaboration with the scheme, providing start-up grants, as well as loans for interested corps members that meet the requisite criteria to fund their businesses.
It is very heartening to note that the skill acquisition programme has become an integral part of NYSC orientation course content. It comprises both in-camp and post-camp training. Evidently, so many corps members that keyed into the activity are today business owners, employing other Nigerians and contributing to the country’s GDP.
However, the number of beneficiaries of the grants and loans from the financial bodies as start-up capital is infinitesimal compared with the number of the youths mobilised every year for service.
The proposed trust fund which has gained traction while addressing the challenges of infrastructure will provide start-up capital to a broader spectrum of corps entrepreneurs to drive their businesses.
NYSC mobilises an average of 350,000 youths yearly for service; even if just 30 per cent of them gets funded by the trust fund yearly, the multiplier effects the establishment of cottage industries by the corps members will have on our economy cannot be overstated.
Doubtlessly, millions of Nigerians will be lifted from poverty; with a concomitant mitigating effect on youth restiveness and other unwholesome practices.
Definitely, the NYSC holds a stake in the march towards economic diversification, if given the requisite support by government. Indeed, the NYSC Trust Fund holds so much hope for the youth.
Thus, as the House of Representatives holds a public hearing on the bill to establish the trust fund, today, it behoves all stakeholders and patriotic Nigerians to rally support for the fund, given the fact that it is a critical need that will not only empower the youth, but also accelerate economic growth and diversification.
Emeka-Rems Mgbemena is an Abuja-based public affairs analyst
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