NYSC: SAED, Trust Fund as Solutions for Youth Unemployment
By David Ifeanyi
Unemployment in Nigeria today is in another class of its own. That many graduatebyouths in the country are languishing in the job market, with no hope to redeem their bleak future, is a statement of fact.
A report by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS)in March this year, revealed that one in three Nigerians, who are able and willing to work, had no jobs by the fourth quarter of 2020.
The bureau reported that Nigeria’s unemployment rate rose to 33.3 per cent, translating to some 23.2 million people. This is the highest in at least 13 years and the second-highest rate in the world. It said 23.2 million of 69.7 million Nigerians in the labour market are jobless.
The figure jumped from 27.1 per cent recorded in the second quarter of 2020, amidst Nigeria’s lingering economic crisis made worse by the coronavirus pandemic. The figures were contained in the ‘Labour Force Statistics: Unemployment and Underemployment Report’ released by NBS.
The data shows that unemployment was worst among youth of between 24 and 35 years where 7.5 million or 37 per cent of the number of the demographic group in the labour market were jobless.
The problem with bourgeoning unemployment did not began in 2020. Since 2016, when Nigeria’s economy slipped into a recession, unemployment rate in the country has more than quadrupled.
Yet, only arm-chair critics and sworn opposition will harangue the federal government, most especially, by saying it is ‘docile’ and clueless amid the prevailing reality.
In recent times, the Federal Government unveiled various social investment programmes to, among other things, tackle poverty and unemployment, while ensuring an equitable distribution of resources to vulnerable demographics including women, youth and children.
It needs to be highlighted that Nigerians have in the recent past, seen some job creation initiatives, from the Federal Government. One of such is N-power, an initiative under the Social Investment Programme, for the creation of employment and empowerment of Nigerians.
These notable strides notwithstanding, it is evident that youth unemployment is rapidly on the increase and may not end if something drastic is not done by the government.
As a youth-centred organisation, the National Youth Service Corps, (NYSC) has an entrepreneurial and business development programme that many may be aware of, but not cognizant of its potential to help tackle Nigeria’s unemployment conundrum.
It is the Skills Acquisition and Entrepreneurship Development, (SAED) project. Yearly, the SAED programme sensitizes and mobilizes about 200,000 young graduates for skill acquisition. To add, it facilitates the training and mentoring of 100,000 young graduates in skill acquisition and entrepreneurship development for self-reliance, annually.
An initiative launched in 2012, SAED’s mission is to facilitate access to requisite skills and resources necessary for successful entrepreneurship. It is targeted at young Nigerian graduates deployed for the one-year mandatory service and was designed to be implemented during the required camping exercises (In–Camp) and throughout the service year (Post-Camp).
In SAED, corps members are encouraged to learn in-demand industry skills, position themselves to become value creators, and leverage career and business start-up opportunities.
The SAED programme is tremendously supporting FG’s aim to catalyse economic transformation through promotion of entrepreneurship and self-reliance, particularly among youths.
According to a report, the NYSC has trained 700,000 corps members in various skills acquisition and disbursed not less than N540 million to 325 corps entrepreneurs, as at 2019.
Director General of the NYSC Brig. Gen. Shuaibu Ibrahim, then, at a media parley, said the scheme has achieved tremendous successes in its bid to help address the problem of graduate unemployment, while also fostering the spirit of entrepreneurship among the youths in the country.
“So far, over 1,132,409 Corps members have been sensitized and over 700,000 have undergone various forms of skills training under SAED programme,” he said.
Brig. Gen. Ibrahim, then, further stated that the BOI-NYSC Graduate Empowerment Fund, which is a product of our partnership with the Bank of Industry (BOI), is yielding encouraging results with the sum of over N540 million so far disbursed as loans to 325 Corps entrepreneurs.
He added that the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) in partnership with Heritage Bank has disbursed N15,000,000 to seven Corps members under the NYSC/CBN ‘Youth Entrepreneurship Development’ (YEDP).
In just a little over two years after assuming office as DG of NYSC, Gen. Ibrahim, an Associate Professor of History, has diametrically overhauled the fortunes of the hitherto dormant SAED, turning it into a gold mine for many, creative, enterprising and business-minded youths.
Less than a decade after SAED was launched, no fewer than 20,000 trained corps members have been linked with various government agencies and non-governmental organisations.
Digressing. It is heartwarming learning that the NYSC has proposed to establish a ‘Trust Fund’ to equip corps members with requisite skills they need for value addition, as they are completing their national services.
By the time the fund becomes a reality, it will also provide resources for the training and empowerment of corps members, especially on skill acquisition and entrepreneurship development.
A seasoned activist and social affairs commentator, Emmanuel Onwubiko, believes that the necessity for the setting up, on a solid footing, of a Trust Fund for youths under the auspices of NYSC has come.
According to him, the NYSC’S Youth’s Trust Fund should be expeditiously established to cut down on the phenomenal rate of youth’s involvement in sophisticated and mind-boggling crimes.
Onwubiko, Head, Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA), said: “Aside the positive, transformational and constructive social impacts the youth trust fund would bring, the initiative is about the surest panacea to youth’s involvement in social crimes because “the IDLE MIND IS THE DEVIL’S WORKSHOP”.
Both the SAED and Trust Fund initiatives are brilliant efforts of the NYSC in the area of tackling unemployment, that are also trailblazing, in every sense of the word.
Brig. Gen. Ibrahim, may not be from the South East. In fact, he clearly does not have an ancestral lineage that can be traced to the people of the region. But as an indigene of Anambra state, I can boldly say that the NYSC helmsman is imbued with the same business talents and industriousness DNA my fellow Igbo folks are greatly endowed with.
It is pointless to argue that he is not using his uncommon administrative acumen to transform the Scheme into a tool that will empower youths, while making both SAED and the Scheme’s Trust Fund as tools for fixing the country’s unemployment puzzle.
Finally, government, alone, can only try, but succeeding in addressing the unemployment crisis across the country demands a holistic approach, one that will be hinged on the synergy to be forged by critical stakeholders.
So far, the NYSC is leading the way in fostering the much-needed collaboration that should be existing between the federal government and various organisations that prioritize youth empowerment. Other organisations and institutions can only do well to borrow a leaf.