The Director General NYSC, Brigadier General Shuaibu Ibrahim has reiterated his undeterred commitment to to uplift the Skills Acquisition and Entrepreneurship Development component of the Scheme, with a view to making it more beneficial to the global community.
He made his administration’s plan to take the programme to an enviable height while inspecting the NYSC Niger state SAED Centre in Mina on Monday 5th August, 2019.
The NYSC Chief Executive Officer, who was conducted round the Centre by the NYSC Niger State Coordinator, Mrs. Funmilayo Ajayi said that equipping Nigerian graduates with entrepr- eneurial skills remains one of the main goals he wants to achieve before leaving office.
He commended the State Coordinator for keeping the Centre alive, and promised to intervene by supplying some facilities that are lacking or inadequate. To start with, he said that some sets of computers will be added to existing ones in order to make the ICT Unit of the Centre more vibrant.
Brigadier General Ibrahim also made a stop over at the Scheme’s garment factory, where the Manager, Mr…. took him round to have firsthand information on progress recorded, its challenges and prospects.
The Manager gave a brief report in which he explained that the Factory when in operation optimally has the capacity to produce enough khaki jackets and trousers, as well as crested vests and shots for all batches of Corps member mobilized annually. He however regretted that the Factory currently operates at a loss due to low patronage, occasioned by obsolete equipments and paucity of funds.
The Director General promised to revamp the Factory so that it can generate revenue to sustain itself, and also yield profit to the mother organization, do reduce total dependence on government in meeting its daily operational needs.
He said “We shall do everything within our powers and the lean financial resources to resuscitate this Company. Therefore, I want you to immediately come up with a blue print of what this Company should look like in the next five to ten years. This is the only way we can key into federal government’s policy on local content development.”
In another development, the Executive Secretary of National Universities Commission (NUC), Prof. Abubakar Adamu Rasheed has described as an act of God, the appointment of Brigadier General Shuiaibu Ibrahim as the 18th Director General of National Youth Service Corps (NYSC).
He made the statement when the latter paid a courtesy visit to his office in Abuja on Monday.
The two patriots met to share ideas on how to put a stop to the raising spate of certificate racketeering by legal and illegal universities in the nation and the entire African sub- region.
Professor Rasheed, who decried ugly trend as a grave disaster for the educational sector and the nation’s ailing economy pledged to give maximum support to NYSC Scheme, in order to ensure that only qualified graduates get mobili- zed for national service.
He revealed the that his administration has made tremendous achievements in checking the operations of universities in the country, with a view to bring to an end the to the decay in the process of admitting and turning out training undergraduate in to the labour market.
The NUC Chief said he was amazed to meet people who do not qualify to have ‘O’ level education possessing universities degrees from some institutions of higher learning in the country and beyond, and vowed to fight tooth and nail to halt the unholy practice.
Also speaking, the Director General of NYSC revealed the staggering scenario whereby some academic institutions present for mobilization names of people who can nether write their own names nor spell even the simplest of words in any language.
He described the situation as very sad and totally unacceptable, and stated the plan by NYSC to come up with more strategies that will ensure the immediate discontinuation of the disgraceful situation.
“Part of what NYSC under my watchful eyes intends to do is to engage Nigeria’s anti-graft agencies in this fight. We also plan to extend invitation to all corps producing institutions to join us in the crusade against mobilization of unqualified graduates” he reiterated.
At the end of their interaction, the heads of the two organizations agreed to form a strong committee that will proffer lasting solutions, in collaboration with other critical stakeholders.
