THE Minister of Education, Tunji Alausa, has proposed the extension of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) to run for two years for serving corps members.
Alausa made the call when the NYSC Director-General, Olakunle Nafiu, visited him in Abuja on Friday, April 4.
According to a statement on Saturday, April 5, by the NYSC Public Relations Director, Caroline Embu, the minister advocates for the extension of national service from one to two years.
He believes it will enable the expansion of the NYSC Skill Acquisition and Entrepreneurship Development (SAED) training programme content for corps members.
“You have done so well as an organisation. Let NYSC give people more opportunities to become job creators that will meet the needs of the country,” Alausa told the NYSC boss.
Responding, Nafiu said the scheme is ready to comply with policy guidelines as directed by the federal government.
“We are also trying to reform the scheme to conform to the present national needs,” the NYSC DG said in response.
The minister was quoted to have hinting at ongoing reform efforts to tackle certificate racketeering.
He commented that efforts were ongoing in the ministry to digitise the verification of foreign-trained graduates of Nigerian origin.
Alausa stressed that the ministry and NYSC would further strengthen their alliance towards the improvement of education for national development.
Further in his remarks, Nafiu called for the establishment of a database of Nigerian youths going abroad to study for degree programmes.
The NYSC DG added that it would help the government have detailed records of Nigerians studying abroad and also eliminate fake graduates.
The ICIR reported in August 2024 that a federal probe revealed that about 22,789 Nigerians were parading fake foreign degree certificates, which were then used to enrol for the NYSC scheme.
It showed that between 2019 and 2023, about 21,600 Nigerians obtained fake certificates from unaccredited universities in the Benin Republic, while another 1,105 got theirs from unaccredited universities in Togo.
In that same year, the government initiated probes and sweeping reforms to block certificate rackets exploiting the system as a result.