Use NYSC to serve yourself not just Nigeria, Minister tells youths

Minister for Youth Development, Ayodele Olawande, has urged young Nigerians going for the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) to serve themselves by acquiring and upscaling their skills.

The Minister spoke during the graduation ceremony of Next Gen RESCO organised by the Rural Electrification Agency (REA).

Olawande stated that there is the need to change their orientation that the scheme is to serve their father’s land, saying the one year service provides them to learn relevant skills they need to gain employment.

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The Minister who lamented lack of skills in some sectors in the country described Nigerian youths as hardworking but needs the opportunity and partnership to strive.

“The young people of this country, can be skilled or upscale their skills because a large number of us are so basically connected with the certificate given to us and forgotten that skills are important.

“I’ve met with private sector and we discovered that a large numbers of industry are lacking young people to work with because again, a large numbers of us believe that immediately we are out of school we serve, according to us, our father’s land.

“We are trying to take away that orientation from our head now that we need to start serving ourselves. During the service year, we hear complaints on social media of corps members not been paid when serving their father’s land.

“It is time to use those money, those energy, those requirements to furnish ourselves with relevant skills.

Speaking earlier, the Managing Director of REA, Abba Aliyu, said the programme was introduced to upskill youth in the technicalities of renewable solar energy.

He said the first cohort saw 120 fellows graduated after a one year internship with an objective to add 1,200 manpower in the power sector in the next 10 years.

He added that the programme is between REA and Renewable Energy Service Company (RESCO) with the intent to provide job opportunities to youths.

“Through the deliberate policies of Mr. President, we now as a country have a 600-megawatt PV panels manufacturing capacity in Nigeria, which was before Mr. President’s assumption of power, the total capacity of manufacturing in the country was just 110. But to date, we have 600-megawatt of PV panels manufacturing. We have LPV with 100-megawatt capacity in Lagos that is now fully functional, operational.”