The NYSC mandatory one month entrepreneurship and vocational training will commence this year with the passage of the 2016 Appropriation Bill, the Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN), has said.
The Director-General of SMEDAN, Alhaji Bature Masari, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja on Wednesday that the agency would also seek for additional funding.
According to him, this will be done in collaboration with the NYSC and other relevant stakeholders such as Banks and GSM companies.
“Regarding the funding of the NYSC mandatory one month entrepreneurship and vocational training, SMEDAN has explored variety of funding windows and resolved to fund the programme through statutory budgetary allocation.
“Hopefully, the funding of the programme will commence this year with the passage of the 2016 Appropriation Bill.
“In addition, the agency has sought for additional funding through collaboration with the NYSC and other relevant stakeholders such as Banks, GSM companies,’’ he said
Masari said the vocational training would equip young graduates to become self-employed, instead of depending on elusive white-collar jobs.
On the issue of the University Entrepreneurship Development Programme (UNEDEP), the director-general said it had been rebranded to cover universities and other tertiary institutions in the country.
He said the programme would now be known as Tertiary Institutions’ Entrepreneurship Development Programme (TINEDEP).
“The agency is still perusing the programme and is streamlining the new concept to make it functional and efficient in all tertiary institutions across the country,’’ he said.
NAN reports that in 2013, the Federal Government inaugurated the UNEDEP to promote self-employment among the youth right from higher institutions of learning.
It said the programme would provide a mentoring platform for students, reduce poverty and re-orientate the undergraduate toward the right values.
It would also give students the opportunity to acquire practical experience that would enable them to successfully manage their own businesses. – Guardian.
