THE National Youth Service Corps has expressed interest in accessing technical support of the National Agency for Science and Engineering Infrastructure (NASENI), in scaling up entrepreneurial skills for corps members.
Director-General of NYSC, Maj General Shuaibu Ibrahim, who made the appeal, commended the management and staff of NASENI for what he described as their wonderful job, adding that lots of opportunities would be available for corps members from the agency’s activities.
Ibrahim said Nigerian youths are innovative, adding that if provided with the enabling environment, their enormous potential could be harnessed for accelerated development of the country.
The NYSC boss recalled the contributions of corps members to the overall national efforts to contain the spread of COVID-19 pandemic through the production and distribution of face masks, hand sanitizers, and liquid soap as well as fabrication of items and devices such as sanitizers, dispensers, disinfection chamber, and body temperature checker.
He said the NYSC Skill Acquisition and Entrepreneurship Development programme was introduced to empower corps members for self-employment and wealth creation, adding that many ex-trainees of the programme had established their own businesses and provided jobs for members of their host communities.
Ibrahim commended the NASENI management for the opportunities given to corps members serving in the agency and went on to propose a partnership under which more corps members would be posted with the view of advancing their skills.
Executive Vice-Chairman and Chief Executive of NASENI Prof Mohammed Haruna said the agency’s mandate was in the area of capital goods research, production and reverse engineering, adding that it had made interventions in various sectors.
Haruna explained that the agency operates through several mono-mandate institutes located in different parts of the country.