SAED: SETTLING AND EMPOWERING THE YOUTHS

 

The Skill Acquisition and Entrepreneurship Development Programme popularly known SAED is an innovation of the Federal Government executed by the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC).

Aimed at youth empowerment and entrepreneurship as the name suggests, the SAED program is geared towards eradicating the prevalent high unemployment and poverty rate among the youth population in the country. 

According to data from the National Bureau of statistics from the second quarter of 2020, 27.1% of Nigerians making about  21,764,614 (21.7 million) people remain unemployed.

With 13.9 million of youths making up this number. This high rate of unemployment among the youths is a ticking time bomb buried deep into the foundation of our society at a whole. Many social vices such as robbery, fraud, kidnapping etc has been linked to the lack of gainful employment among the youth.

In recent times, due to the drastic rise in population and a global economic recession, the woes of unemployment and poverty has plagued Nigeria and the youth are not left out of this. In order to secure the future of our Nation, the SAED program came to be of necessity.

In this essay, I shall be examining the impact of SAED in settling and empowering the youth, vis a vis the challenges faced in achieving the set goals , as well as suggestions for improvement.

One of the core impacts of the SAED program in  the NYSC scheme is the entrepreneurship training. This is a one on one entrepreneurship training course that starts right at the NYSC orientation Camp for a total period of 10 days and even continues after the orientation exercise.  The entrepreneurship training in camp is free and closes off with an exhibition which displays the craftsmanship learnt while in training. 

The training awakens a sense of entrepreneurship and self reliance in the youth Corps members and avails those who have had no prior entrepreneurial experience an opportunity to develop a long lasting interest in entrepreneurship.

Furthermore, for those who may not ordinarily be able to afford expensive workmanship training, the SAED program is an avenue to access professional training totally free or at a relatively small price. Not only is the training offered at a discounted price but also corporate registration of business name or company becomes easier and cheaper for corp members all thanks to the liaison between the Federal Government registration Agency  known as the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) and other relevant agencies. In addition to this, funding is also made available to the corp members who wish to start their businesses by virtue of short term loans made available at low or no interest rates.

In addition, the SAED program provides a platform for professional networking among the SAED “trainers” and “trainees”.

Many of the youth corps members go on from SAED training to becoming members of professional organisations such as the Tailoring, Designing, Painting, Hairdressing associations etc which helps to foster professional development.

Despite the efforts of the SAED program in curbing the prevalence of unemployment and poverty among the youths, it’s no news that there is still much more to be done.

The SAED program of the NYSC applies only to graduates who are members of the youth corp, this only makes for a meagre percent of young people in Nigeria. Those who are uneducated are left at the mercy of Non Governmental Organisations (NGOs) and infrequent and unorganised training by the government. 

 Presently in Nigeria, entrepreneurs have been worst hit by the devastating effects of the COVID 19 global pandemic. With insufficient or no insurance for small businesses a number of Small to Medium Enterprises(SMEs) have had to go under. The implication of this is that Entrepreneurship Development Program may not be enough in a society where government policies and programs do not favour small businesses.

In light of this, I posit that so much more can be done by the Government through its policies and programs. This is not only to create SAED but to also ensure that there are policies and programs that will create a suitable germinating environment for the business seeds planted by virtue of the SAED program.

Name: Sangoyomi Temiloluwa.

State Code: OS/20B/0033

Discipline: Law