By Temitope Salami
Sagamu (Ogun) – Mr John Okpo, Ogun State Coordinator of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC), has tasked corps members to take advantage of the Skills Acquisition and Entrepreneurship Development Programme (SAED) to be self-reliant.
Speaking at the graduation of 1,535 corps members in its the SAED programme, Okpo, tasked the corps members to distinguish themselves by optimally applying their skills towards the economic growth of the nation.
The graduation ceremony, organised for the 2017 Batch ‘B’ Stream 1 corps members, presently undergoing orientation, was held at the NYSC permanent orientation camp in Sagamu, Ogun.
“These ones have been exposed to several sub-skills under the 12 skill sectors of the SAED approved by the NYSC directorate part of which includes but not limited to fashion designing, landscaping and make-up artistry.
“Bead/jewelry embroidery, cosmetology, catering, craftsmanship, food processing and information/communication technology.
“It is believed that within the next few months, some of those trained will begin to create wealth for themselves and become employers of labour.
“To achieve this, you must continuously develop yourselves with your trainers stationed across all local government areas within the state, post-camp, to master your skills.
“I also urge you to leverage on the collaboration between the NYSC and partner financial institutions to assess soft loans to grow your businesses,” he said.
Also speaking, Mrs Chinwe Ezenwa, an industrialist, during her pep talk to the corps members, urged them to exude discipline and dedication to achieve business excellence.
“You must take your own destiny in your own hands and look for how to make an impact by being a solution provider.
“Billionaires are solution providers and ones who have learnt to perfect their skills and trade over time to the benefit of others.
“If you must excel in craftsmanship and enterprise, you must pay attention to quality,” Ezenwa said.
In an earlier address, Mr Kayode Fagboyo, the Ogun State Director, National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control pledged the support of the agency in enabling SAED meet its objectives.
“We have streamlined our registration process for products so that those who want to register their products could get it done quicker within 90 days, ” Fagboyo said.
A corps member, Miss Olafunke Afolabi, a 28-year-old Computer Science graduate from Auchi Polytechnic in Edo thanked the NYSC for then training.
She, however, called for more support in expanding the scope of the programme to accommodate more skill-sets to meet the yearnings of the youths who had diverse interests.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the SAED programme, inaugurated by the NYSC board in 2012, had since graduated over 10,000 trainees in Ogun since inception.
NAN reports that the NYSC SAED, facilitates the training and mentoring of young graduates in various endeavours to make them self-reliant. (NAN)