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The proposed National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) Trust Fund will address infrastructural deficit besetting the scheme in the areas of camp renovation, maintenance; upgrading, building and maintenance of corps members lodges.
The scheme’s Director of Press and Public Relations, Mr Eddy Megwa, said this in a statement on Friday in Abuja.
According to him, the decision to establish the NYSC Trust Fund was conceived during a meeting held with some of the scheme’s stakeholders.
He added that present at the meeting included the 36 state governments and FCT Administration.
He also said that the idea of the trust fund was strongly supported by civil societies, National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) and the Association of Local Governments of Nigeria (ALGON).
”Statutorily, the scheme as it were, has a tripartite funding arrangement – the Federal, State and Local Governments, with each having varying degree of responsibilities.
”Over the years, the scheme has equally partnered governmental and non-governmental institutions in the area of providing start-up capitals.
”This is for corps members to fund their business initiatives under the NYSC Skill Acquisition and Entrepreneurship Development (SAED) programme which is a direct answer to the often asked rhetorical question: After the NYSC what next?,’’ he said.
Megwa also said the fund would create resources for a greater percentage of corps members trained under the NYSC skills acquisition programme to start-up their businesses.
He clarified that the fund which passed public hearing, with civil societies, the academia, among others, fully represented was not a pool of slush fund meant to gratify the financial cravings of top military officers, as erroneously reported in certain quarters.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the bill which has been passed by both chambers of the National Assembly mandates businesses operating in Nigeria to remit one per cent of their net profit to fund the trust fund. (NAN)
