Gambia seeks National Youth Service Corps support on youth empowerment.

The Republic of the Gambia has sought technical assistance from the National Youth Service Corps towards addressing the problem of graduate unemployment in the country.

Gambian Minister for Youth and Sports, Hon. Alieu K. Jammeh, made the request during a courtesy visit to the NYSC Director-General, Brigadier-General Sule Zakari Kazaure, at the Directorate Headquarters in Abuja.

The Minister, who stated that his country had made a lot of achievements by using the platform of the Gambian National Youth Service Scheme to train youths in different areas of vocation, added that there was the need to curtail the rate of unemployment among its graduate youths.

He said the Gambian Government was ready to learn from the experience of the Nigeria’s National Youth Service Corps on how the country’s graduates mobilized for youth service would benefit from skills acquisition and entrepreneurship development training so as to empower them to become self-reliant.

Jammeh lauded the NYSC for deploying its technical know-how and managerial experience, including deployment of its personnel, to help in establishing the Gambian National Youth Service Scheme (GNYSS) in 1996. He expressed his country’s interest in enjoying further technical support from the NYSC to enable it tackle emerging challenges.

“On behalf of the President and the people of Gambia, we want to thank you for the time and resources you have invested in the Gambia. We are here to register our appreciation for your assistance in the formative years of the Gambian National Youth Service Corps.

“From 1996 up till now, the young people in the Gambia have been going through the Gambian National Youth Service Scheme. This time it is for Skills Acquisition and some are making good living for themselves. We want to tell you what our situation is and how you can help us to enable us achieve our objectives.

“We have challenges of what we can do for young people who go through the universities and we realize that in Nigeria, you have been able to overcome these challenges,” he said.

The Minister also stated that the Gambian government had made it compulsory for all its graduate youths to serve before getting employment in the public service. He added that there was the need to instill the spirit of patriotism among Corps members during the service year through positive co-existence.

He used the occasion of the visit to congratulate the Director-General on his appointment, and wished him success.

In his response, the NYSC Director-General, Brigadier General SZ Kazaure, said the National Youth Service Corps had achieved a lot in terms of socio-economic development across the country in numerous ways, pointing out that the Scheme had, especially, enhanced national unity through the inter-regional posting of Corps members.

He added that countries like Zimbabwe, Sierra-Leone, South-Africa and Liberia were seeking assistance from Nigeria through sub-regional and regional initiatives.

He recalled how, based on the resolutions of the Second Global Conference on Youth held in Abuja in 1994 urging countries to establish NYSC-like youth programmes, the Republic of Gambia made a request for Nigeria to help in the establishment of its National Youth Service Scheme.

He further recalled that a team of NYSC officials from Abuja arrived Gambia on January 13, 1996, to provide the technical and managerial assistance for the establishment of the Scheme in that country.

Kazaure informed the Gambian delegate that the NYSC in Nigeria had also made tremendous achievements over the years by introducing the on-line registration for Corps members, creation of Distress Call Centre, Hope Alive Programme for Corps Members that suffered permanent disability during service year, Health Initiative for Rural Dwellers, participation of Corps members in elections and also in monthly environmental sanitation exercise among others.

He assured the Minister that his requests would receive positive response.

The Minister was accompanied by the Director, Planning, Ministry of Youth and Sports of the Gambia, Mr Musa Mbye and the Deputy Ambassador of the Gambia in Nigeria, Mrs. Fatou Njie-hydara