From Sola Ojo, Kaduna
The Director-General of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) Major General Shuaibu Ibrahim in Kaduna on Friday reiterated the importance of corps members in national unity, cohesion and economy when he said without them, education and health sectors would have been in jeopardy.
The DG stated this while fielding questions from newsmen shortly after he officially inaugurated the scheme’s first mega printing press in Kaduna.
The DG also used the opportunity to call on Nigerians to support the call for the establishment of the NYSC Trust Fund to enable the scheme trained and give corps members start-up capital at the end of their national service.
According to him, “NYSC has established several ventures including garment factories, water factories and this printing press and whatever we realise will be remitted to the federal pulse because apart from national unity and integration, we are to also contribute to the national economy where these ventures come handy.
“The initiation and completion of this project illustrate the management’s commitment to the functionality of the six .ega printing presses, one for each of the country’s geo-political zones as approved by the office of the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation.
“The significance of the printing press lies in its potential as a contributor to our efforts towards re-invigorating the NYSC ventures which is one of the cardinal points of my administration’s policy thrust.
“That was why we are appealing to Nigerians to support the establishment of the NYSC Trust Fund which would apart from enhancing our performance at the scheme, corps members would be adequately trained in various skills so, at the end of the service year, they get start-capital to establish their businesses.
“With their generation being digital, they will take millions of Nigerians out of unemployment if this opportunity is granted.
“So, without the corps members, our education and health sectors will be in serious jeopardy. The corps members will always be ready for whatever legal task that is given to them because they are like ‘set aside’ in national emergencies including population census and elections”, he said.
