ONE of Nigeria’s most enduring national institutions, the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC), is entering a new era, as the Federal Executive Council (FEC) has approved a comprehensive reform of the agency—the first holistic review in its 53-year history.
As part of the approval, FEC directed the Attorney-General of the Federation and the Ministry of Youth to amend the NYSC Act and its regulations to reflect all approved reform measures, enabling immediate implementation of the new framework.
Under the reform, the NYSC will be led by a civilian in its operational leadership, whilst the military will continue to handle security for corps members across the country.
This shift is intended to reposition the NYSC as a skill-oriented, productivity-driven, youth-empowering institution that directly supports the administration’s ambition of building a $1 trillion economy.
Speaking on the reform, Special Adviser to the President on Policy Coordination, Hadiza Bala Usman, said there was a need to intervene to build the present ambition of a $1 trillion economy by repositioning the NYSC.
“These, we need to strengthen the human capital development to enhance the workforce that is needed for us to promote and align with our national development,” she stated.
“The reform areas speak to all the strategic aspects of NYSC, starting from the area of the main area of deployment. How are you registering in the NYSC? What modality is being used to post you to several states? How are we recognising the areas where we have security challenges? What constitutes the period with which youth corps members are in camp?” she explained.
11 Core Streams
Bala-Usman said the government had examined what needed to be done to recognise people’s skill sets and what Nigeria needs from its youth after graduation.
“We’ve segmented the NYSC across 11 different core streams. We have looked to see what are the areas that exist for Nigerian youth that Nigerian youth are interested in,” she said.
She outlined a new structure within the orientation camp, beginning with a two-week foundation on civic responsibility, covering civic duties, national values, and leadership development.
The next two weeks would focus on career mapping, basic accounting literacy skills, business planning, and access to finance.
“But importantly, the final two weeks, which is a minimal period, we intend to have a focused corps stream-specific training. This aligns with the corps members designated stream based on his choice, based on his academic background and skill profile. We’ve designated 11 core streams across NYSC,” she added.
The presidential aide said graduates would be able to choose which stream they wish to participate in upon registration.
The streams include the Agric Corps, Medical Corps, Education Corps, Tech and Digital Corps, Legal Corps, Public Service Corps, Infrastructure Corps, Green Corps, Enterprise Corps, Creative Economy Corps, and Paramilitary and Security Corps.
“Each corps member, once he’s in, once he has uploaded and he has been recognised and accepted as a corps member, he’s required to pick one of those corps, and once he registers in that, then we recognise him as a medical corps, and certain trainings will be given for each of those corps within the two weeks,” Bala-Usman explained.
“What is important is Mr President, in his usual bold and courageous way, has taken on this holistic reform of the NYSC, which has never been done in the last 53 years of its establishment. NYSC will be civilian-led with clarity of the fact that we need to build the skill set of our youth to enable them function and support the government in building a $1 trillion economy.”
The NYSC scheme was created by decree No. 24 of 22nd May 1973 in a bid to reconstruct, reconcile, and rebuild the country after the Nigerian Civil War “with a view to the proper encouragement and development of common ties among the youths of Nigeria and the promotion of national unity.”
It is currently led by Brigadier General Olakunle Nafiu.
