The National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) has urged Nigerians to patronise ‘Made in Nigeria’ products in order to encourage local production of goods and services.
Mrs Belinda Faniyi, NYSC Coordinator in Ogun State, made the call on Monday at the opening ceremony of the Skills Acquisition and Entrepreneurship Development (SAED) programme organised for corps members in Ogun State.
Faniyi, who spoke to newsmen at the NYSC Permanent Orientation Camp in Sagamu where the 2019 Batch ‘A’ corps members are currently undergoing orientation, also called on youths to be economically active as entrepreneurs.
According to her, the SAED is aimed at encouraging young graduates to be self-reliant in the face of unemployment.
She said the NYSC SAED has recorded enormous success since its establishment as more youths continued to show capacity to produce goods which could favourably compete with their foreign counterparts.
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Faniyi said that to reduce the scourge of unemployment, youths must have something to fall back on, hence the drive to empower them with the necessary skills to cushion the effect of non-availability of white-collar jobs.
“We give them support in terms of publicity and patronage to encourage their ventures.
“We have an online platform established to exhibit their products and wares and where possible we connect them with the buyers or service users.
“Most of what they produce compares favourably with what obtains from their counterparts from China or even the US.
“I want to encourage Nigerians to patronise these young ones to enable them to be self-reliant, self-dependent and become employers of labour,” she said.
The NYSC boss added that a 30-hour period in 10 days had been dedicated to the corps members’ SAED training during the 21- day orientation course.
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Faniyi also said that job advisory and counselling had was made available to corps members as part of the SAED programme to enable job seekers tackle their job search favourably.
“The SAED department of the NYSC has created opportunities for financing of corps members business proposals through many channels such as the Youth Entrepreneurship Development Programme (YEDP).
“Here the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) in collaboration with commercial banks mobilise resources for corps members business proposals.”
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the areas of training listed under SAED include Information and Communication Technology, Construction, Culture and Tourism, Food Processing and Preservation and Cosmetology.
Others are Construction, Agro-Allied, Environment, Beautification, Power and Energy, Education, Film and Photography and Automobile. (NAN)
