Tunde Bakare
The incumbent Miss World Nigeria, Tamunosoye Karibi-George has appealed for support from the NYSC for her pet project which is targeted towards entrepreneurship for young Nigerians.
The 2026 pageant winner disclosed that her pet project – empowering the youth through skill acquisition, currently has a skill centre in Port Harcourt, Rivers state, where she trains young men and women in fashion design.
She made the appeal during her courtesy visit to the NYSC Director General at the National Directorate Headquarters in Abuja.
The beauty queen who is an ex-Corps Member also requested approval for her with her team to pay visits to NYSC Orientation Camps across Nigeria, in order to motivate Corps Members to embrace Skill Acquisition.
Miss Karibi-George used the forum to invite the Chief Executive, NYSC Staff and Corps Members to her national send-forth slated for 5th August, 2026 at the Transcorp Hilton in Abuja.
“Director General Sir, while in camp at NYSC Permanent Orientation Camp, Kubwa-Abuja in 2021, I participated actively in SAED training and this gave me the impetus to establish a fashion design centre in Port Harcout”.
“We have been training youth at the centre and giving them start-up kits at the end of their training. We don’t give them money so as to avoid the temptation of them diverting it into another use than the business we train them for”, she stated.
In his remarks, the Director General of National Youth Service Corps, Brigadier General Olakunle Nafiu commended the reigning Miss Word Nigeria for her efforts in promoting entrepreneurship among the youth.
General Nafiu said her decision to engage in youth empowerment is in line with NYSC’s Skills Acquisition and Entrepreneurship Development (SAED) programme, which is aimed at making Corps Members self-reliant and employers of labour.
While urging her to keep up the tempo, he assured her of the Scheme’s readiness to partner with her in motivating more Nigerian youths to embrace Skills Acquisition and Entrepreneurship, which he noted as the surest way of pulling the nation out of poverty.
“As an institution, we introduced SAED in 2012 having realized that government alone cannot provide jobs for the ever increasing number of young graduates annually”.
“We encourage Corps Members to pick up at least one skill during the Orientation period and nurture same afterwards, in addition to the certificates they obtained from school, in order to have multiple streams of income”, he said.
The NYSC helmsman congratulated Miss Karibi-George on her emergence as the most beautiful and elegant of all ladies that contested to be crowned Miss World Nigeria for 2026, thereby succeeding Joy Mojisola Raimi.
He encouraged the beauty queen to brace up for the 73rd Miss World Festival at which she would be representing Nigeria in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam later in the year.
“As we wish you a very successful outing at the global fiesta, we want to assure you of our moral support and prayers”.
“We are particularly proud of you because we see you as a member of the NYSC having passed out from National Service just 4 /5 years ago”, he added.
The Director General concluded by drawing her attention to the fact that her participation in the beauty pageant at a global stage is a noble opportunity for her to showcase and promote Nigeria’s culture, which he described as cultural diplomacy.