The National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) and the Federal Ministry of Women Affairs have agreed to collaborate on the delivery of free healthcare services to women and children in rural communities across Nigeria, in a move aimed at improving access to healthcare and reducing maternal and child mortality.
According to an official statement signed by the Director of Information and Public Relations of the NYSC, Caroline Embu, the partnership was one of the key outcomes of a courtesy visit by the Director General of the NYSC, Brigadier General Olakunle Nafiu, to the Minister of Women Affairs, Hajiya Imaan Sulaiman-Ibrahim, at the ministry’s headquarters in Abuja.
During the meeting, Brigadier General Nafiu said the NYSC possesses a large pool of healthcare professionals serving across the country who can be mobilised to support the ministry’s health interventions in underserved communities.
He noted that doctors, nurses, pharmacists, dentists, optometrists, dermatologists, physiotherapists and medical laboratory scientists deployed under the Scheme have continued to provide free medical services through the Health Initiative for Rural Dwellers (HIRD), a programme introduced in 2014.
“We have healthcare professionals serving in communities nationwide who can be mobilised to support the Ministry’s healthcare interventions,” Nafiu said.
The NYSC Director General also revealed that the recent donation of two mobile medical clinics to the Scheme by the First Lady of Nigeria, Senator Oluremi Tinubu, would further strengthen the proposed collaboration.
According to him, the mobile clinics would be deployed periodically to support the ministry’s outreach programmes, expand access to free medical screening and treatment for women and children, and contribute to efforts aimed at reducing maternal and child mortality.
Beyond healthcare, Nafiu proposed collaboration in skills acquisition and entrepreneurship development, suggesting that the ministry’s vocational training facilities could be utilised to strengthen the NYSC Skills Acquisition and Entrepreneurship Development (SAED) programme.
“We are ready to explore opportunities within the Ministry, particularly the use of your training facilities, to strengthen our Skills Acquisition and Entrepreneurship Development programme. Our Corps Members will, in return, empower women in their communities by equipping them with vocational skills through which they can earn sustainable incomes to support their families,” he said.
He also highlighted the Scheme’s longstanding support for the ministry during International Women’s Day and Children’s Day celebrations through cultural performances, music, dance and public sensitisation campaigns by Corps Members.
Responding, the Minister of Women Affairs, Hajiya Imaan Sulaiman-Ibrahim, described the visit as historic, saying closer collaboration between the two institutions was long overdue given their shared commitment to improving the welfare of Nigerians.
She expressed the ministry’s readiness to partner with the NYSC across the proposed areas, stressing that stronger inter-agency collaboration remains essential to achieving sustainable national development.
“Effective collaboration between government institutions remains one of the most efficient ways of achieving meaningful and sustainable national development,” the minister said.
To facilitate the partnership, Sulaiman-Ibrahim proposed the appointment of focal persons from both organisations to develop a framework that would guide the implementation of the collaboration.
The minister also commended Brigadier General Nafiu’s leadership, describing him as a quiet achiever whose stewardship has brought stability to the operations of the Scheme.
She further described the NYSC as one of Nigeria’s most cherished national institutions, noting that its impact continues to be felt across generations.
“There is hardly anyone who has not passed through the NYSC. It is an institution that is very dear to all of us. My own daughter is currently serving, and I appreciate how important the Scheme is to her and to the nation,” she said.
