Creative Industry

NYSC Laments Inadequate Funding Of SAED

Published

6 years ago

March 2, 2021

Joel Ajayi

The National Youth Service Corps has identified inadequate funding as the major challenge affecting its Skills Acquisition and Entrepreneurship Development programme.

In a statement issued by the Schemes’s Director, Press and Public Relations Adenike Adeyemi (Mrs) on Monday in Abuja said despite this, the NYSC has recorded tremendous success in the implementation of the program.

The Director-General, Brigadier General Shuaibu Ibrahim in his address at the 2021 NYSC SAED Stakeholders’ Meeting and Training of Desk Officers, held at the National Directorate Headquarters in Abuja.

He said the Scheme will not rest on its oars in its quest to sustain and build on the achievements made within the last one year towards making Corps Members employers of labour.

“The major challenges of the SAED program are inadequate to finance for Corps Empowerment, which includes skill and entrepreneurial training facilities, business start-up capital, access to mentorship as well as insufficient bilateral and multilateral collaborations”.

“Despite the unusual situation occasioned by the COVID-19 pandemic and the attendant dislocation of many businesses in 2020, it is gratifying that so much has been achieved”, he said.

Ibrahim urged participants at the training to make deliberations that would lead to the expansion of the existing collaborations as well as developing new ones.

The Director-General who said Corps Members are equal and laden with same potentials irrespective of state of deployment urged the SAED stakeholders to spread the opportunities of empowerment across the country in order to enhance national development.

The Director, Skills Acquisition and Entrepreneurship Development programme, Mr Hilary Nasamu said as a result of the fallout of the 2020 edition of the programme, participant stakeholders expressed commitment to provide resources to tackle the challenges and chart a brighter way for the economic empowerment of Corps Members.

He said despite the effects of COVID-19 pandemic, the Scheme made a positive difference and improved the scorecard of the NYSC SAED initiative.

He listed the successes recorded to include; NYSC-BOI partnership, NYSC-Unity Bank Partnership, NYSC-BATNF Partnership, NYSC-EDC Partnership, NYSC-Access Bank Partnership, NYSC-LFN Partnership, NYSC-NIRSAL MFB Collaboration among others.

He added that in order to step up the quality of training for Corps Members, the Scheme has started the process of re-energizing the involvement of the National Directorate of Employment (NDE) including Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN) among others.

Mr Nasamu said access bank is now partnering with NYSC-SAED for direct financial empowerment for Corps Members through a competitive programme known as the lions’ den.

“Winners in this programme received a package of business mentoring and funding totalling N3,000,000:00 for Corps Members per camp and N9,000,000:00 for 30 winners in 3 states”, he said.

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Creative Industry

FG Backs MyCityApp Launch of 100-Day Tourism Calendar to Drive $100bn Economic Growth

Published

2 weeks ago

September 15, 2026

The Gleamer

Joel Ajayi

The Federal Government has thrown its weight behind the launch of MyCityApp, a Nigerian city discovery and tourism platform designed to aggregate festivals, concerts, cultural events and lifestyle experiences into a single digital calendar.

The platform, which flags off the 100-Day Tourism Calendar, was unveiled on Monday at the Ember2Remember National Stakeholders’ Conference in Victoria Island, Lagos, with the initiative targeting Nigeria’s estimated $100 billion tourism and creative economy opportunity.

In a statement issued on Tuesday in Abuja by the Media and Publicity Adviser to the Minister of Art, Culture, Tourism and the Creative Economy, Nneka Ikem Anibeze, the ministry said the conference was aimed at mobilising public and private stakeholders to transform the September-to-December festive period into jobs, investment and economic growth.

Speaking at the unveiling, the Minister, Hannatu Musa Musawa, said millions of visitors travel across Nigeria every year to celebrate, reconnect and experience the country’s diverse culture, stressing that the festive season could be deliberately organised and monetised to strengthen tourism’s contribution to the economy.

“This initiative is about moving beyond the traditional concept of a festive season. It is about deliberately organising, packaging, promoting, and monetising one of the most economically active periods in our national calendar,” Musawa said.

She noted that every visitor generates economic activity across several sectors, including aviation, transportation, hospitality, restaurants, entertainment, retail, technology, artisans and local communities.

The Minister commended MyCityApp Chief Executive Officer, Mrs Ifeoma Chukwu, for her vision and commitment to the initiative.

She urged state governments, event organisers, tourism operators, hospitality businesses and other stakeholders to list their festivals, concerts, exhibitions, food experiences, cultural celebrations, fashion and sporting events on the national calendar.

Musawa said the platform would enable Nigerians, members of the diaspora and international visitors to discover tourism and entertainment experiences across the country from a single, credible source.

Earlier, Chukwu said Nigeria’s rich cultural heritage and creative sector provided enormous opportunities for tourism-driven economic growth.

She cited the contributions of tourism to the economies of countries such as Spain, France and the United States, arguing that Nigeria could equally build a $100 billion tourism economy.

Also present were Lagos State Commissioner for Tourism, Arts and Culture, Toke Benson-Awoyinka; Enugu State Commissioner for Culture and Tourism, Ugochi Madueke; NCAC Director-General, Obi Asika; National Gallery of Art Director-General, Ahmed Sodangi; ARCON Director-General, Dr Olalekan Fadolapo; and MTN Nigeria CEO, Dr Karl Toriola.

MyLagosApp and MyCityApp will serve as the digital engines of the calendar, distributing events through a 360-degree media ecosystem to audiences in Nigeria and the diaspora.

Stakeholders were encouraged to upload their events on MyCityApp to participate in the national tourism calendar urging them to upload events on http://www.MyCityApp.io.

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