The National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) and the Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN) have expressed readiness to deepen their partnership aimed at empowering Nigerian youths through entrepreneurship and skills development.
The Director-General of NYSC, Brigadier General Olakunle Nafiu, made this known in Abuja while receiving the Director-General of SMEDAN, Dr Charles Odii, during a courtesy visit.
Nafiu described SMEDAN as a critical stakeholder in the NYSC Skill Acquisition and Entrepreneurship Development (SAED) programme, noting that the collaboration has helped thousands of corps members establish businesses that contribute to national economic growth.
According to him, the NYSC remains committed to initiatives that promote national unity, socio-economic development and youth empowerment, stressing that the SAED programme would continue to receive priority attention.
“SMEDAN has played a vital role in empowering corps members to become entrepreneurs whose businesses are contributing to Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Product,” Nafiu said.
He added that the scheme plans to strengthen partnerships with financial institutions to enhance corps members’ access to loans and grants for business development.
The NYSC boss also commended SMEDAN’s efforts in entrepreneurship advocacy, financial literacy, skills acquisition and access to funding across various sectors of the economy.
Earlier, the Director-General of SMEDAN, Dr Charles Odii, called for a review of the existing Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between both agencies to further strengthen their collaboration.
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Odii disclosed that SMEDAN currently supports over 39 million small businesses nationwide and proposed the establishment of a dedicated NYSC Community Development Service (CDS) group to promote awareness of SMEDAN programmes among corps members.
He described SMEDAN as the Federal Government’s apex agency for small business development, with a mandate to drive job creation, poverty reduction and industrial growth.
“From the orientation camp, corps members should be equipped to become business development service providers,” Odii said.
He also revealed that SMEDAN is prepared to train NYSC officials on entrepreneurial skills that would enable them to establish businesses after retirement.
The meeting underscores renewed efforts by both agencies to expand opportunities for young Nigerians through structured skills acquisition and enterprise development programmes.
