The Chairman, National Governing Board, NYSC, Mrs Fatima Abubakar, on Tuesday urged corp members to embrace the Skills Acquisition and Entrepreneurship Development (SAED) programme of the agency to enhance their lives.
Abubakar gave the advice during the board’s facility tour of the Rivers NYSC orientation camp at Nowa Tai.
She told the corp members that SAED was designed to teach them different skills and trades, as well as enable them to obtain agriculture loan after their service.
“You are given the opportunity to learn different trades so that if you don’t get white collar jobs, you engage yourself on the skills learnt during your service year to better your lives,” Abubakar said.
She stated that the purpose of touring different orientation camps across the country was to access the facilities provided in the camps and the welfare of the corp members.
The board chairman urged them to listen and obey the management and staff of the corps, wishing them well in all their endeavours.
Abubakar also commended Rivers Government for building a hall at the state orientation camp and noted that it was 97 per cent completed.
“The governor promised to provide facilities in the camp and I believe he has kept his words.
“We thank the government and the people of Rivers State for doing that for NYSC,” she said.
Eairlier, the State Coordinator, Mr Mangofan George, said that the registered 1738 Batch “C” Stream 1 corps members, comprised 658 males and 1,080 females.
George said that the NYSC National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) in the state was fully managed by the University Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital to strengthen the health department of the corp.
He listed the challenges faced in the camp as perennial theft, lack of electricity from the national grid, lack of official vehicles and lack of financial support from the state government.
He however pledged the commitment of the staff to their job and expressed gratitude to the governing board for visiting Rivers.
Other members of the board in the entourage were Mr Prince Oyewumi (presidential appointee), Mrs Hajia Binta Muazu, Alhaji Yusuf Nalado and Prof. Suleman Abdukari, (representative of Vice Chancellors).