The federal government says the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) must be transformed into a modern, digitally driven and fiscally sustainable national institution capable of meeting Nigeria’s current and future manpower needs.

Hadiza Usman, special adviser to the president on policy and coordination and head of the central results delivery coordination unit, stated this on Monday in Abuja at the NYSC Reform Stakeholders’ Consultative Engagement Forum.

The forum was organised by the Office of the Special Adviser to the President on Policy and Coordination to validate recommendations of the NYSC reform committee.

Ms Usman said that although the scheme had, for more than five decades, symbolised national unity and civic responsibility, it could no longer operate under structures designed for the 1990s.

“For over five decades, the NYSC has symbolised unity, civic responsibility and national integration. Yet, as with all human institutions, relevance requires reinvention,” she said.

She added that the current NYSC framework was outdated, overstretched and misaligned with national priorities.

“These realities have made clear that the current structure – centralised, analogue, financially overstretched, and misaligned with national manpower needs – cannot carry the scheme into the future,” she said.

Ms Usman said diagnostic reviews conducted by the committee revealed legal, operational, digital and fiscal gaps requiring immediate action.

She said the findings showed that centralisation had slowed service delivery, the funding model relied too heavily on the federal government, and skill development programmes were misaligned with labour-market needs.

In response to these gaps, she said the committee proposed far-reaching reforms, including amendment of the NYSC Act to provide for digital service, gender-responsive deployment, co-funding by states and local governments, and explicit employer obligations.

Others include a three-tier governance structure for improved accountability, a unified digital command and service platform, zonal innovation hubs under a redesigned skill acquisition and entrepreneurship development model, and the creation of a N2 billion NYSC Innovation Fund.

“The reform proposal envisions a phased implementation between 2026 and 2028, beginning with legislative amendments and digital pilots in 2026, and culminating in a nationwide sector-aligned deployment model by 2028,” she said.

She noted that the success of the reforms depended on broad stakeholder ownership.

Earlier, the minister of youth, Ayodele Olawande, said the reforms were necessary to ensure that corps members were better prepared for employment and self-reliance, adding that the scheme must produce graduates capable of contributing meaningfully to the economy.

“Let us make NYSC productive so that after one year, corps members will not just come out looking for government jobs but can become employers of labour,” he said.

He added that with the number of corps members expected to rise from 400,000 to 600,000 annually, Nigeria must ensure that the scheme remained relevant and aligned with economic realities.

The director-general of the NYSC, Brig.-Gen. Olakinle Nafiu, said the scheme had undergone several internal and external reforms over the decades and must continue to evolve.

“As a matter of fact, in 1973, the first set of corps members mobilised were 2,364. Today, we mobilise 400,000 annually, and we expect 650,000 locally trained graduates to present for service next year,” he said.

He added that the NYSC remained a model in Africa and must keep improving to retain that status.

The director-general of National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), Kashifu Inuwa, said the reforms must enable the country to harness its human capital to drive national growth and global competitiveness.

He noted that Nigeria’s rapidly expanding population provided both an opportunity and a challenge that the NYSC must help to address.

“In Nigeria, we can conveniently train our youth and help them to reach the global talent gap. Imagine we have two million Nigerians working remotely; this can earn the country nothing less than 100 billion dollars annually. We can achieve a one trillion-dollar economy if we harness our human capital,” he said.

A youth participant, Fatima Lamisula, representing Borno North at the Nigerian Youth Parliament, said the reforms were timely and aligned with the needs of young graduates who face a rapidly changing labour market.

“These policies are outdated and youth have to bring in their ideas and innovations. Life after NYSC is something we have to think of even before finishing the programme, so the reforms should align with the future of corps members,” she said.

Recommendations from the forum will be forwarded to the federal executive council and subsequently to the National Assembly for legislative action.

(NAN)