File copy: Some NYSC members

No fewer than 500 ex-members of the NYSC, who benefited from the Skills Acquisition and Entrepreneurship Development (SAED) programme, have settled in Katsina State and established various businesses.

Mr Okpo John, the NYSC State Coordinator, disclosed this on Thursday in Katsina at the swearing-in ceremony of the 2017 batch B Stream 1 corps members deployed to the state.

‘’About 500 ex-corps members who benefited from their SAED programme have established their own businesses and settled down in many parts of the state,’’ he said.

He said that the programme had contributed toward achieving national integration in the country.

‘’Now, we have some youths settled in this part of the country and established their businesses in line with establishment of NYSC scheme,’’ he said.

The coordinator explained that SAED programme was aimed at training corps members on various skills acquisition and empower them with loans to become self reliant after their service year.

John further said that about 321 serving corps members also secured such loans to establish small entrepreneurship.

He said that the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) provided the loans for the interested NYSC members.

According to him, following the successes recorded in the progromme, the state has been chosen as center for SAED training for North West zone.

The Special Adviser to the Governor on Youth Development, Alhaji Ibrahim Khalil, assured the corps members that the state was peaceful and its people were hospitable.

Khalil urged them to work hard in their places of primary assignments and Community Development Services (CDS’s).

He announced donation of food items to them by the state government.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that 2,065 corps members are deployed in the state.

NYSC scheme was introduced in 1973 for graduates of tertiary institutions to foster national unity.

(NAN)