NYSC Must Empower Corps Members for Life After Service – Minister

The Minister of Youth Development, Mr Ayodele Olawande, says the NYSC scheme should henceforth seek ways to prepare graduates for innovative solution to meet market demand and not only to serve their fatherland.

Olawande gave the charge on Thursday in Abuja, at the 2025 National Youth Service Corps Batch ‘A’ Pre-Mobilisation Workshop with the theme: “Reforming Corps Mobilisation in the Contemporary Nigerian Society: Challenges and Prospects”.

According to Olawande, since the scheme’s establishment in 1973, the world has evolved and the scheme’s scale of operation should also improve to meet the new demand.

“We need to think of new innovative solutions, especially in the area of corps mobilisation.

“While the NYSC has promoted cultural integration and skills acquisition over the years, we must address the gap in developing welfare and how the scheme can contribute to prepare our graduates for today’s job market.

“Let’s all start now to think, to value, to shape, to engineer the process, so that majority of our graduates will meet up with the job market and not be looking for jobs where there are none .

“The corps members can even build jobs for a large number of people,” he suggested.

He, however, said that reforming corps members was not only the responsibility of the government, but that which all stakeholders must jointly handle.

The Director-General, NYSC, Brig.-Gen. Olakunle Nafiu, said that reforming the NYSC mobilisation process had become necessary in the present day Nigeria.

He added that the management of the scheme also recognised that the world was changing rapidly, adding that it must therefore deploy new strategies to reflect the current realities.

“We understand that by leveraging technology, security partnerships, infrastructure investment and skill-based deployment, we can enhance efficiency, improve prospective and serving corps members’ experience, and sustain the scheme’s contributions to national development.

“Therefore, during this workshop, we will engage in robust discussions and brainstorm on the challenges and prospects of the NYSC mobilisation process.

“We will examine the intersections of youth development, national service, and societal transformation while exploring innovative strategies to harness the energy and ideas of Nigerian youth to build a more peaceful, just, and prosperous society,” he noted.

While declaring the workshop open, the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Mr Nyesom Wike, attributed the giant strides recorded in the territory partly to the services of corps members deployed to the city.

Wike, who was represented by the Mandate Secretary, Youth and Sports Secretariat, Hon. Ango Suleiman, assured that the FCT would partner in the implementation of its core objectives.

He urged the participants to formulate practicable steps in achieving a seamless mobilisation process.