. Major General S. Ibrahim
By Uji Abdullahi Iliyasu
Abuja
NYSC Director-General Major General Shuaibu Ibrahim has appealed to Federal Government to grant approval for the establishment of NYSC Trust Fund for the benefit of corps members.
The bill on the proposed trust fund has passed second reading in the House of Representatives.
The DG who stated this on Sunday in Abuja while on a live TV programme, “Journalists’ Hangout”, said the trust fund, if actualised, would help to reinvigorate the NYSC Skill Acquisition and Entrepreneurship Development programme, because it would empower more corps members with start-up capitals for their business initiatives at the end of their service year, which in turn would lift millions of Nigerians out of poverty, given the fact that the businesses to be established will employ millions of Nigerians, thereby taking them off the labour market.
General lbrahim said the fund would address the infrastructural deficit in the scheme, such as the upgrade of facilities at the NYSC orientation camps; training and retraining of personnel, among others.
General Ibrahim appealed to Federal Government to modify the school curriculum and introduce entrepreneurship training whereby students would have been exposed to vocational studies before their deployment for national service.
The Director-General assured that the socheme would continue to utilise the potentials of corps members for national development through its ventures like; the NYSC Bakery, NYSC Water Factory, NYSC Farms, NYSC Film, NYSC Radio, among others.
He therefore commended members of the House of Representatives for allowing the bill to pass the second reading, adding that corps members have been involved in several national assignments with commendation from members of the public.
