The National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) has announced a major overhaul of its Skill Acquisition and Entrepreneurship Development (SAED) training for Corps Members, aimed at reducing unemployment and improving long term employability among young Nigerians.
The Director General of the Scheme, Brigadier General Olakunle Nafiu, disclosed this during his address at the 2025 second SAED stakeholders’ summit held in Abuja. The summit had the theme “Empowering a Generation: Building Competence for the Future Workplace and Enterprise Through Impactful Partnerships.”
Nafiu explained that the overhaul involves standardising the SAED curriculum to ensure deeper impact and better outcomes for Corps Members across the country. He said the Scheme has embarked on a comprehensive digital transformation of the SAED programme as a pathway to combating youth unemployment.
According to him, the updated curriculum now includes modern and in demand skills such as artificial intelligence and mobile application development, among others. He noted that these additions are designed to help Corps Members stay relevant and competitive in a rapidly changing global labour market.
The DG further disclosed that Corps Members are being mainstreamed into the Federal Government’s 3 Million Technical Talent (3MTT) programme. He added that the NYSC is also connecting participants to global remote work opportunities through initiatives like Outsource to Nigeria, nyscjobs.ng, and the SAED SME toolkit.
Describing SAED as a pillar of youth empowerment in Nigeria, Nafiu said more than 3.18 million Corps Members have completed entrepreneurship and workplace readiness training since 2012. He revealed that over 30,000 businesses have been formally registered with the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) by beneficiaries of the programme.
“They are employing others and contributing to the Gross Domestic Product while demonstrating that our youths are capable change agents,” he said.
Nafiu stressed the need to place greater emphasis on competence, mastery of SAED skills and digital fluency, so that Corps Members can remain highly competitive in today’s world of work. He also highlighted the ₦2 billion MSME loan fund for Corps Entrepreneurs, recently launched in partnership with the Bank of Industry (BoI), describing it as a landmark achievement.
The NYSC boss commended the founding fathers of the Scheme for their foresight in embedding entrepreneurship training into its objectives. He noted that “the unemployment rate as at 1973 was put at 1.9%, but today it is about 6.9%,” adding that many young Nigerians currently lack employability skills.
“We thank our partners and stakeholders in the SAED programme for collaborating with the NYSC to mitigate the scourge of youth unemployment in Nigeria,” Nafiu said.
He urged participants at the summit to renew strategies for equipping Corps Members with the necessary skills, creativity and confidence to thrive in the contemporary world. “Equipping our young people is not just a programme, it is a national assignment and NYSC is fully committed to it,” he added.
Earlier, the Director of SAED, Mr Kehinde Aremu-Cole, expressed appreciation to stakeholders for driving transformation across sectors such as technology and digital skills, creative industries, entrepreneurship development, financial empowerment and agricultural revitalization.
Aremu-Cole described the trainings, grants and mentorship sessions previously delivered as laudable, noting that they are shaping Nigeria’s future through Corps Members. He called on stakeholders to create special purpose funding pathways.
