NITDA Creates Sustainable Innovation, Enterprise Pathway for Corps Members

The National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) has launched a dedicated innovation hub aimed at transforming National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) members from job seekers into technology driven entrepreneurs and solution providers.
Speaking at the commissioning of the hub at the NITDA’s headquarters in Abuja, the Director General of NITDA, Mallam Kashifu Inuwa CCIE, said the initiative was designed to respond to the realities of a changing global economy, where digital skills and innovation now determine employability and economic relevance.
The agency deliberately leverages this opportunity by prioritising training in emerging technologies, structured mentorship, and platforms that help corps members scale ideas from conception to real world impact.

According to NITDA, the agency has been absorbing an average of 700 corps members annually – a figure that almost doubles its permanent staff strength. “Our goal is simple: before you leave here, you should either have built a business or created something valuable enough to earn you a place in the ecosystem. The world is changing fast. Many of the jobs we see today did not exist decades ago. If you want to succeed, you must build relevant skills and have a clear career strategy,” Inuwa said.

He explained that between 3.5 million and 4 million young Nigerians enter the labour market every year, placing continuous pressure on traditional employment systems and making innovation driven job creation a national priority. Drawing from personal experience, he recalled how a voluntary project during his own service year in 2004, where he built a website using his NYSC allowance, earned him a ₦1.5 million contract and launched his professional journey. “You need to create visibility. If you stand out, you don’t have to ask for jobs,” he added.

In his remarks, the Director General, the National Youth Service Corps, Brigadier General Olakunle Oluseye Nafiu, described the initiative as a model for national development and youth empowerment. “We don’t just post corps members for service; we post them to add value and to be developed. What is happening here at NITDA is exactly what the country needs,” Nafiu said.
He praised the corps members for presenting market ready digital solutions and said the experience reinforced the relevance of the NYSC scheme in a technology driven era.

The future of this country is here with these youths; we are going back with stories that at NITDA, they are not just accepting corps members; they are transforming them into better Nigerians.”

General Nafiu disclosed that the NYSC is undergoing its own digital transformation, announcing that from the 2026 Batch A Stream One, the scheme has fully digitised its ID card system, enabling corps members to access their identification through digital dashboards.
He further expressed interest in adopting a Place of Primary Assignment (PPA) verification and management solution developed by corps members at NITDA and called for formal collaboration between both agencies to integrate the technology nationwide.
The NYSC DG urged Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDA’s) to move beyond routine postings and begin to treat corps members as contributors to national solutions. “The youths we deploy are not just serving; they are solution providers,” he said.

During the event, corps members demonstrated functional digital solutions, including NITDA Smart ID Management by Team Sentinel and Trivergent, and the NYSC Corps360 (COPA App) by Team COPA. The solutions are designed to improve identity management, service coordination, and operational efficiency within the NYSC scheme. While speaking with one of the innovators and ex NITDA Corps member Ruth Mmachi Owana Jack said her team developed the Smart ID System, describing it as “a secure and unified digital identity solution designed for modern institutions.”

Highlighting NITDA’s roles in training and reshaping corps members into solution driven innovators, Lukman M. Abdullahi, an ex corps member, said the structured exposure at the agency was central to the development of the Secure Smart ID solution.
Rather than treating the NYSC year as a routine public service requirement, NITDA has repositioned it as an innovation pipeline, where corps members are challenged to solve real problems and build commercially viable solutions before the end of their service.
The innovation space will serve as a practical hub for NITDA’s Idea to Impact programme, which supports corps members in refining early stage ideas into deployable products. Several projects developed by serving corps members are already in use within NITDA, while others are being prepared for commercialisation.

According to NITDA, this initiative aligns with President Bola Tinubu’s vision for youth economic empowerment and digital transformation. The commissioning of the NITDA Innovation Space marks a strategic shift in how national service is perceived — from a transitional year of waiting to a structured pathway for innovation, enterprise and long term impact.