BENIN CITY – The Edo State Governor, Mr. Godwin Obaseki, has urged members of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) to focus on skill acquisition and entrepreneurship development during their service year in the state.
The governor said this while declaring open the NYSC Orientation Camp for 2020 Batch A Corp Members at Ovia North East Local Government Council of Edo State.
Governor Obaseki also charged the corps members to key into the government’s agricultural programmes aimed at achieving food sufficiency, job and wealth creation for the state.
According to the governor, corps members must take interest in agriculture because the country can no longer only rely on oil or white-collar jobs to grow its economy.
He said, “We will organise you into clusters and provide you with poultry birds so you will raise them. We will also link you to off-takers who would buy the birds.”
Governor Obaseki noted that the opportunities in skills acquisition were also opened to the corps members to gain and sharpen their entrepreneurial skills, urging those who would be posted to classrooms to take training of students seriously as the state places priority on education and human development.
He said he had instructed that work should be accelerated at the NYSC Permanent camp, promising to provide an additional 250 KVA generator for the camp.
The governor also charged the corps members to be guided by the ideology of the scheme, which is about service and unity.
Earlier, the Edo State NYSC Coordinator, Mr. Adebayo Ojo, said about 1, 801 corps members, compromising 881 males and 920 females were registered for the 2020 Batch A, stream one, orientation programme.
Ojo said the corps members had displayed a high sense of discipline and hardwork since the commencement of the Orientation Camp, noting that the camp would close on March 30.
He commended the governor for the ongoing construction work at the NYSC Permanent Site, which had hitherto been abandoned for 16 years.
The coordinator added that measures had been put in place to prevent the spread of coronavirus in the camp through the provision of hand sanitizers, and hand washing facilities within the camp.
Meanwhile, Chairman, NYSC State Governing Board and Edo State Commissioner for Youths, Hon. Damian Lawani, reassured that the corps members would be exposed to series of lectures on topical issues and trainings during and after the three-week camp.
He charged the corps members to interact and integrate themselves to the host communities they would be posted to after the three weeks camp.
