The federal government has confirmed plans to replace the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC)’ s traditional khaki uniform with locally produced Adire fabric as part of ongoing reforms aimed at repositioning the scheme.
This comes days after the Federal Executive Council on Monday approved a comprehensive overhaul of the NYSC.
The Minister of Youth Development, Ayodele Olawande, disclosed this on Thursday during an interview on Channels Television’s The Morning Brief, saying the move was intended to promote local manufacturing and ensure government spending supports the Nigerian economy.
“It’s Adire. So, Adire is being produced in Nigeria. We have them in Ogun, we have them in Kwara, and we have the textile industry. Let’s put our money back into the country,” he said.
Olawande also said corps members would increasingly be posted according to their fields of study under the new framework, explaining that graduates with education qualifications, for instance, would be deployed to schools rather than being posted without consideration for their professional backgrounds.
“After you are leaving the camp, you are not just posted to a school just because NYSC wants you to be in school but because of the process you followed when in camp. So, that is going to give a framework of where you are going to be posted to,” he said.
On security, the minister said the government was considering posting prospective corps members to regions where they studied and were already familiar with the environment, particularly in areas facing security challenges.
According to him, the arrangement would reduce concerns among parents and prospective corps members while making the deployment process more practical.
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