National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) on Wednesday interacted with some foreign tertiary institutions in its bid to ensure that graduates mobilised for the scheme meet statutory requirements.
The interaction with foreign corps producing institutions in some African countries had the theme“Strategies for
Successful Mobilisation of Nigerian Foreign Graduates: The Role of Stakeholders.’’
The NYSC Director-General, Maj.-Gen. Shuaibu Ibrahim, said that the meeting was a step toward bridging communication gap between NYSC and tertiary institutions in Africa.
Ibrahim added that the gap had affected mobilisation of graduates for the service year, noting that the meeting
was an opportunity to review the process with stakeholders so as to make it better.
The NYSC boss said “this meeting is a deliberate step to bridge the communication gap between NYSC and tertiary institutions in Africa, because the gap has created problems in the mobilisation process.
“We have established a tradition of reviewing our performance in the mobilisation process, especially in recent times.
“It is aimed at examining those challenges with a view to proffering lasting solutions.”
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The director general assured that the interaction would provide opportunity to scrutinise issues peculiar to mobilisation of foreign-trained graduates.
The Permanent Secretary, Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Mr. Christian Oha, described the NYSC scheme as crucial to socio-economic development of the country.
Oha, who was the Special Guest of Honour at the event, said it was important to sanitise the mobilisation process of the scheme, especially as it concerned foreign trained graduates to ensure that only eligible candidates participated.
He added “as we regulate institutions in Nigeria, it is important to extend same to foreign institutions that send
Nigerian graduates to be mobilised for the NYSC scheme.
“This is also a bold step forward in the fight against corruption.’’
The Director, Corps Mobilisation, Mrs Nnena Ukonu, said that the meeting would provide good opportunity to
bridge communication gap between foreign corps producing institutions and the NYSC.
She expressed the hope that resolutions reached at the meeting would improve mobilisation of Nigerian graduates
from tertiary institutions in Africa.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that officials of tertiary institutions in African countries like Benin Republic, Cameroon, Ghana, Burkina Faso, Chad, Cote D’Ivoire, Uganda, Togo and Sierra Leone attended the meeting. (NAN)