The United Republic of Tanzania has expressed its desire to understudy the activities, programmes, achievements, and challenges of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) and replicate them.
The Deputy High Commissioner and Charge D’affaire of Tanzania High Commission, Her Excellency Judica Nagunwa, stated this when she paid a courtesy visit to the director general of National Youth Service Corps (NYSC), Brigadier General YD Ahmed, at the National Directorate Headquarters in Maitama, Abuja.
She said the Tanzania National Service programme, which started in 1963, is for both volunteers and compulsory participants, but added that many viable programmes in NYSC are yet to be replicated in her country.
According to a press statement by information and public relations director, Eddy Megwa, Nagunwa commended NYSC’s contributions to national development, adding, “We think there is the need to come and learn from you.
“We have come to study the structure of NYSC and see how it can assist us in vocational training, youth empowerment, wealth production and security”.
In his response, Ahmed said the scheme, established more than 51 years ago, is a one-year compulsory national service programme for graduates under thirty.
He added that through the NYSC Skills Acquisition and Entrepreneurship Development training programme, millions of corps members have acquired vocational skills that have made them employers of labour in different locations across Nigeria.
The DG disclosed that NYSC has undergone many changes with the exigencies of time to make it responsive to national needs.
He disclosed further that the main objective of establishing NYSC was to foster national unity and integration after the 30-month-old Nigerian Civil War.
