General Electric (GE) has announced a partnership with the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) to empower Youth Corps members with valuable entrepreneurial skills in line with its objective of skills development.

Under the partnership arrangement, will see thousands of youth corps members will receive critical entrepreneurial training known as the Start & Improve Your Business (SIYB) training programme, which is based on the curriculum of the International Labour Organization (ILO).
Managing Director of GE Gas Power Systems in Nigeria, Mohammed Mijindadi, explained that the initiative was one of the many ways GE is supporting skills development in Nigeria.

Leading a team on courtesy visit to the Director General of NYSC, Brigadier-General Suleiman Kazaure, in Abuja, Mijindadi stated: “We are committed to the sustainable development of Africa and Nigeria in particular, and as such we invest in skills development initiatives that empower people with valuable skills, equip communities with new tools and technology and elevate ideas that are helping to solve Africa’s challenges.”

He further explained that the program works using a Train the Trainer approach where NYSC personnel and facilitators are trained utilizing an international curriculum benchmarked against global standards.

Following that, the facilitators are supported to execute training programs for all youth corps members across the country. “The initiative is a practical business management-training programme with a focus on starting and improving small businesses,” he added.

In his remark, Roti Balogun, Chief Talent and Skills Development Leader for GE Africa, said the overall goal is to improve on and increase the capacity of the youth in building micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) that can operate effectively and be sustainable long-term.

Balogun, who is also Corporate Champion for the Nigerian Economic Summit Group’s Human Capital Development commission, added: “We are pleased to lead a private sector response to some of our commitments from the recently concluded NES23 summit on skills, competencies and capacity building with a focused strategy on faculty development in Nigeria.