NYSC redesigns SAED, introduces AI, digital skills to tackle youth unemployment

The National Youth Service Corps has redesigned its Skill Acquisition and Entrepreneurship Development programme, introducing artificial intelligence and other digital skills as part of a renewed strategy to tackle youth unemployment in Nigeria.

The overhaul is aimed at equipping Corps Members with practical, future-ready skills that match the demands of today’s workplace and the digital economy.

The Director General of the Scheme, Brigadier General Olakunle Nafiu, disclosed this at the 2025 second SAED stakeholders’ summit held in Abuja, where he said the curriculum redesign and standardisation were intended to deliver deeper impact and measurable outcomes for Corps Members.

The summit focused on strengthening partnerships to better prepare young Nigerians for employment and enterprise.

Nafiu explained that the revamped SAED programme is undergoing a comprehensive digital transformation, with new training areas including artificial intelligence, mobile application development, and other technology-driven skills.

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He said the initiative forms part of the NYSC’s broader effort to position Corps Members as competitive players in a rapidly changing job market.

He further disclosed that Corps Members were being mainstreamed into the Federal Government’s 3 Million Technical Talent (3MTT) programme as well as global remote work opportunities through initiatives like Outsource to Nigeria, NYSC jobs.ng, and the SAED SME toolkit.

Describing the SAED programme as a pillar of youth empowerment in Nigeria, he said more than 3.18 million Corps Members had completed entrepreneurship and workplace readiness training since 2012 with over 30,000 businesses formally registered with the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC).

“They are employing others and contributing to the Gross Domestic Product while demonstrating that our youths are capable change agents,” he added.

The DG stressed the need to focus more on competence, mastery of the SAED skills and digital fluency by Corps Members so as to make them highly competitive in the rapidly changing world.

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He described the ₦2 billion MSME loan fund for Corps Entrepreneurs, which was recently launched in partnership with the Bank of Industry (BoI), as a landmark achievement in the entrepreneurship development drive.

Nafiu hailed the founding fathers of the NYSC for their foresight in anticipating and laying the foundation for entrepreneurial training as captured in one of the objectives of the Scheme.

“The unemployment rate as at 1973 was put at 1.9%, but today it is about 6.9%. Nigeria has many young people who lack employability skills.

“We thank our partners and stakeholders in the SAED programme for collaborating with the NYSC to mitigate the scourge of youth unemployment in Nigeria.

“We must be committed to empowering a generation whose innovation and enterprise will shape the country’s future into prosperity.

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“Equipping our young people is not just a programme, it is a national assignment and NYSC is fully committed to it”, he said.

He urged participants at the meeting to renew strategies for equipping Corps Members with the necessary skills, creativity and confidence to live in the contemporary world.

Earlier in his remarks, the Director of SAED, Mr Kehinde Aremu-Cole, expressed gratitude to the stakeholders at the summit for driving transformation across multiple sectors such as technology and digital skills, creative industries, entrepreneurship development, financial empowerment, and agricultural revitalization.

Aremu-Cole described as laudable, all the trainings, grants and mentorship sessions they had delivered previously, noting that they were shaping Nigeria’s future through the Corps Members.

He called on them to create special purpose funding pathways that would turn desire and skills into productive enterprises.

“Together, we are not just running a programme: we are building a generation.

“Let us keep empowering, and let us keep believing in the potentials of our young people,” he said.