The coordinator of National Youths Service Corps (NYSC) in Zamfara, Lawan Ahmed, has advised corps members to prioritise skills acquisition and entrepreneurship for self employment.

He gave the advice at the closing ceremony of the Skills Acquisition and Entrepreneurship Development (SAED) programme of the ongoing 2024 Batch C Stream I Orientation Course at the NYSC camp, Gusau on Friday.

The coordinator said the advice became imperative in view of job scarcity in the country.

Mr Ahmed encouraged the corps members to embrace the NYSC SAED programme as it was specially designed to reduce unemployment among the youths.

“The importance of having a skill in Nigeria of today can not be overemphasised, skills are in high demand and they help you to be self-dependent.

“It is not a good thing to still depend on your parents for little things after they have spent so much to put you through school.

“So, embrace this skills programme wholeheartedly, be committed to consistent learning and move from the apprentice level to masters’ level of your skill set.

“With that you can start your own business, become self-dependent and employ others instead of looking for scarce white collar jobs,” he admonished.

He encouraged the corps members to take advantage of various credit facilities initiated by the federal government for corps members through various financial institutions.

The coordinator used the occasion to commend the NYSC top management for providing the necessary resources for free training of corps members on camp.

Under the NYSC SAED programme, corps members were trained free-of-charge during their camping period in various areas such as agro-allied services, construction work, event management, fashion designing and photography among others.

(NAN)