In a first review of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) in its 53-year history, the Federal Executive Council (FEC) on Monday approved sweeping reforms to the Scheme announcing that the scheme will now be headed by a civilian director general instead of a military officer.
As part of the approval, the FEC directed the Attorney-General of the Federation and the Ministry of Youth to amend the NYSC Act and its regulations to reflect all the 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, while the military will continue to handle security for corps members across the country.
This shift is intended to reposition NYSC as a skill-oriented, productivity-driven, youth-empowering institution that directly supports the administration’s ambition of building a $1 trillion economy.
Briefing State House correspondents after the FEC meeting presided over by President Bola Tinubu, the Minister of Youth Development, Ayodele Olawande, said the reforms would also introduce professional training programmes for corps members to enhance their employability and entrepreneurial skills.
He explained that the NYSC would retain its one-year service duration while incorporating flexible, skills-based training programmes into the service year. Under the new framework, he said, the scheme would remain civilian-led, while the Nigerian military would continue to be responsible for the security of corps members nationwide.
“Graduates enrolled in specialised streams, such as the proposed Digital Corps, may spend additional time in training before deployment to their primary places of assignment to earn professional certifications that enhance employability and self-employment opportunities,” Olawande said.
Providing further clarification, the Special Adviser to the President on Policy Coordination, Hadiza Bala Usman, said the reforms would not affect the military’s responsibility for the security of corps members.
According to her, “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.
“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?”
Bala-Usman further disclosed that the government looked to see what needed to be done to recognise people’s skill set, to recognise what it is that Nigeria needs from the Nigerian youth after graduating.
“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.
“So we looked to see how many streams can be done by stream, I mean the type of additional training we can provide you as a graduate, in having graduated from the university, so within the orientation camp, there is a new structure where you have the first two weeks, which speaks to laying a foundation on civic responsibility.
“You’ll be made aware of what it is that civic duties mean, our national values, leadership development. The next two weeks, we would look to career mapping, basic accounting literacy skills, business planning, and access to finance. How do we access finance? And then we intend to introduce a structured career day programme to enable corps members engage directly with the public.
“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 said.
