NYSC urges states to upgrade camps

The Director-General of National Youth Service Corps, (NYSC) Brig. Gen. Suleiman Kazaure, yesterday urged state governments to upgrade the orientation camps in their states.

Speaking in Abuja through the director, planning, research and statistics, Mrs Bose Okakwu at the opening ceremony of the 2017 Corps Members Forum, he said the increasing population of corps members has overstretched the camp facilities and limited the lodges for corps members and as well caused post service unemployment for the corps members.

“To address these challenges, management has consistently sensitised state governments on the need to upgrade the orientation camps for the comfort of corps members during orientation programmes. In the same vein, we are doing all within our means to ensure that states and local government provide corps lodges,” he said.

“We have strengthened and expanded the scheme’s collaboration with relevant agencies such as Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), the Bank of Industry (BOI), SMEDAN and Access Bank PLC, among others to provide entrepreneurial skills and startup capital for corps members to enable them to become self-employed after the service year,” he said.

For her part, the acting director, corps welfare, and inspectorate, Mrs Josephine Okuonghae, said the corps members forum was designed to interact with the corps members and share their experiences gathered during the service year to aid policy formulation and implementation in the scheme.