The Ondo State Coordinator of the National Youths Service Corps, Mrs. Grace Akpabio, has asserted that the enrolment of graduate youths in Skill Acquisition and Entrepreneurship Development (SAED) programme is laying a solid foundation for future financial prosperity.
Akpabio made the assertion when she declared open SAED Trainers and Partners Forum at the Conference Hall, Federal Secretariat, Igbatoro Road, Akure.
She advised the trainers and partners to build a lasting relationship not only with the scheme but also with corps members who are the direct beneficiaries of the programme.
She said that NYSC, since the introduction of the programme seven years ago, had made successive corps members managers of enviable business outfits.
“Ladies and Gentlemen trainers and partners, NYSC recognises your individual and collective sacrifices you are daily making at ensuring that you make our graduate youths owners and managers of small and medium scale enterprises,” Akpabio said.
Akpabio advised the participants to discuss better ways to harness the potentials of the vibrant youths and come up with far reaching decision that would sustain the programme.
The NYSC boss charged them to freely discuss the challenges they were facing in the course of training the corps members and advised them to proffer lasting solutions to them.
Welcoming the guests, the Assistant Director/Head, SAED, Mrs. Itohan Ehimwenma, said that the forum started since 2016 was meant “to bring partners to the roundtable with a view to getting acquainted, appraise our performance, identity our challenges, deliberate, cross-fertilise ideas and re-strategise for optimal output”.
Mrs. Ehimwenma said the theme for this year’s event, “Consolidating the gains of youth empowerment in the NYSC Ondo State,” has been carefully chosen “to unveil the gains of our effort towards youth empowerment in Ondo State.”
She averred that there was no gainsaying that SAED programme had translated into equipping corps members with the necessary vocational skills as well as business competence needed to start up business and wealth creation.
The forum, according to her, “promises to strengthen our best practices and resolved perennial challenges confronting us.”
While appreciating all the partners who took time out of their busy schedule to attend the yearly event, the Assistant Director/Head, Skill Acquisition and Entrepreneurship Development (SAED) programme charged the participants to chose being money conscious, career conscious or destiny conscious.
The elated “Mama SAED” as Mrs. Ehimwenma is fondly called gave the progress report on the SAED building at the Permanent Orientation Camp, Ikare-Akoko which she said was 60 per cent completed.
She called on the partners trainers who were yet to support the project to do so without further delay while at the same time calling on those who had registered their presence to do more.
She vowed that all assistance received for SAED building at the camp and that of SAED Centre located within the premises of Zonal Office in Oda Road, Akure shall be judiciously spent.
The participants at the forum resolved to work more vigorously with the NYSC field officers.
The acknowledged the inputs of corps employers.
One of the guest speakers, Mr. Henry Okeke of the City Education Business Consult dwelt on how unemployment had been a major challenge facing the youths in the country and how best it could be tackled.
The consultant mentioned integrity, commitment, sacrifice and seeking more knowledge at both convenient and inconvenient time as some of the conditions for attaining greatness in the business world.
The event extensively deliberated on the challenges that had emanated as a result of the zonal programme held the previous year which afforded the management the opportunity to verify at first hand their potentials, strength and weakness.
