Geoffrey Anyanwu, Awka
Nigerian youths doing their national youth service in Anambra state have been charged to embrace the Skill Acquisition and Entrepreneurship Development (SAED) programme with zeal to escape future frustration.
Giving the charge yesterday, while addressing the 2019 Batch ‘B’ Stream 2 corps members at the Umunya orientation camp, the Director, SAED Department at the NYSC Directorate Headquarters, Abuja, Mr. Hilary Nasamu, urged them not to joke with the rare opportunity the programmed was presenting to them.
Speaking through the State Coordinator, Mr. Kehinde Aremu, SAED boss said the lack of practical skills had contributed largely to unemployment in Nigeria, noting that identifying and advancing skills and business ideas could enhance self reliance among the corps members just as it would make them future employers of labour.
Nasamu who described call to national service as a time of hope and new possibilities, noted that many corps members had already taken advantage of the NYSC/Bank of Industry Graduate Entrepreneurship Fund (GEF) through expert guidance in writing and funding of bankable business proposals.
He said, “Participating in this programme is a rare privilege for you to give your positive attributes full expression in order to blossom and find fulfillment. I’m confident that with the attainment of these attributes, through constructive engagement, you would sooner than later be a CEO and a wealth creator.
“Grab this golden opportunity to avoid being counted among the pensive, disillusioned and frustrated youths roaming the streets of major cities of this country looking for elusive jobs.
“Hundreds of corps members have already benefited from the GEF scheme. These opportunities will be available to you through participation in SAED activities.”
Enumerating 12 business skills available to the corps members, the Director stated that if they properly utilize them, they could expose them to identification of business ideas and writing of proposals capable of attracting loans from financial institutions for start-up.
In his own address earlier, the State Coordinator, Aremu, had challenged corps members to develop skills capable of enhancing the actualization of their dreams saying, “You must recognize that you are part of the Nigeria elite; you can’t afford to be in the same position as those that did not go to school.
“The only way you can enter into where God has positioned you is this: Get a skill, develop the skill and run with the skill.”