The National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) has restated its commitment to strengthen the Community Development Service (CDS) programmes for national development.
Director-General of the NYSC, Brig.-Gen Yusha’u Ahmed, said there was a need to enhance the CDS programme to enable the NYSC contribute more to national development, and assist the country in measuring up with global trends of emerging economies. He spoke yesterday during the 2023 NYSC Community Development Service (CDS) Schedule Officers’ Workshop in Abuja.
Gen. Ahmed, represented by the Director, Community Development Service and Special Projects, Zainab Isah, said the workshop would also serve as a forum where consensus would be built on tackling emerging CDS challenges.
He said: “The NYSC Community Development Service (CDS) programme is designed to galvanise the potentials of our youths and generate community interests towards national development. It utilises the challenges posed by rural development, and inculcates in our youths the ideals and capacities for leadership, endurance, selflessness, community and national service, as well as patriotism and creativity.
“As such, there is no gainsaying that through the CDS programme, the Scheme is able to connect directly with the grassroots, offering developmental initiatives which have revolutionised our communities in education, infrastructure, healthcare delivery, agriculture, economic empowerment and, above all, national consciousness and socio-cultural regeneration.”
“The continued relevance of the National Youth Service Corps is, no doubt, largely predicated on the strength and capacity of the CDS programme to impact more on the lives of Nigerians, especially, rural dwellers. It is on this note that the theme of the workshop, ‘Rejigging the NYSC Community Development Service for National Development’, was carefully adopted to allow us brainstorm on possible ways of enhancing the CDS programme, to enable the Scheme contribute more to national development.”
