By Chizoba Ogbeche
Abuja
Ministry of Youth Development has signed a ‘Contribution Agreement’ with the United Nations Habitat on National Youth Service Corps (NYSC), and youth empowerment.
In a statement by the ministry’s Assistant Director Press and Public Relations, Olusola Abiola, the Minister, Boni Haruna, said the agreement would enable the ministry embark on the evaluation, and straightening of the NYSC.
He said it would also help address other key youth based issues such as, upgrading of the Youth Centres to the model of UN-Habitat one stop centres.
Haruna said the development outputs identified under the agreement particularly, the proposed baseline historical and institutional study would lead to the establishment of a mechanism for monitoring and evaluating of the NYSC scheme.
“This output hopes to assess the overall performance of the scheme after 40 years in view of present realities and enhance the capacity of the ministry to do so consistently thereafter,” he said.
He said a full scale assessment, monitoring and evaluation was needed in the NYSC scheme for broader development goals as contained in the new Sustainable Development Agenda (SDGs) that would replace the MDGs goals.
“Clearly the NYSC, against all the odds it faced over the years, has been a Nigerian success story worth sharing with the world particularly given the conditions of youth in today’s labour market. This partnership with the UN hopes to achieve precisely this objective.”
The minister assured that the project would place the ministry in a better position to re-position the scheme for better performance and broader development objectives of the country.
He stressed the need for the current youth centres to be upgraded, saying that they are critical for engaging the teeming youths whom their issues had become sensitive.
In her remarks, the Assistant Secretary-General of the UN, and Deputy Executive Director of UN-Habitat, Dr Aisha Kirabo, commended government for its commitment to the wellbeing of young persons, assuring that the agreement would address challenges facing Nigerian youths.
