Nigeria’s Education Minister advocates for extending the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) program to two years as part of efforts to combat certificate racketeering and expand the Skill Acquisition and Entrepreneurship Development program. The proposal comes after a 2024 federal probe into fake foreign degree certificates used for NYSC enrollment.
In a bid to strengthen the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) program, Nigeria's Education Minister, Tunji Alausa, has advocated for an extension of the scheme from one year to two. This proposal comes as part of the ongoing reforms aimed at addressing rampant certificate racketeering, which has long plagued the system. A recent investigation revealed that nearly 23,000 Nigerians had been using fraudulent foreign degree certificates to gain entry into the NYSC program. The government is taking serious steps to combat this issue, including digital verification of foreign-trained graduates.
During a visit to the NYSC headquarters in Abuja, Education Minister Alausa praised the ongoing efforts to digitize the NYSC mobilization process, which is expected to significantly reduce fraud. He also suggested that a longer service duration would allow for an expansion of the Skill Acquisition and Entrepreneurship Development (SAED) program, enabling corps members to become job creators.
The NYSC director-general, Olakunle Nafiu, echoed the minister’s sentiments, stressing that the organization is committed to reforms in line with national needs. Nafiu also proposed the creation of a database to track Nigerian students abroad to further combat the issue of fake certificates.
