Brigardier General Yusuf Bomoi, the director general of the Nigerian National Youth Service Corps, who led a group of high ranking officials, on Wednesday paid a courtesy call on Major General Lang Tombong Tamba, at his office, Banjul.

The team who were accompanied to the Gambia Armed Forces (GAF) Headquarters by Abdpoulie Kah, the deputy permanent secretary at the Department of State for Youth and Sport, and Musa Mbaye, the executive director of the NYSS. The visit was meant to brief the CDS about the fruitful long-standing relationship between the two service institutions.

Speaking at the occasion, Brig General Bomoi said the relationship between the two countries is a long-standing one and the visit seeks to strengthen that bond of relationship between the two institutions, which share similar objectives.

‘’Our common objectives are to trained and empower young people in various skills programme with a view to generate employment and self-reliant ventures,’’ he said.

According to him, the concept of the National Youth Service Corps of Nigeria, was emerged in the post-independence civil war, which had retarded "national unity. Our then government decided to establish the NYSC as a mechanism to regain unity," he said.

According to him, his institution will this year, mobilise 300,000 corps members for training in various skills, adding that they will be mobilising half a million corps in the next two years.

While assuring their continuous support to the NYSS, Brig General Bomoi expressed satisfaction with the success of institution.

Reacting to comments, Major Gen Lang Tombong Tamba, the chief of Defence Staff of GAF, who is a board member of NYSS, lauded the relationship between the two countries, noting that this could be manifested back to the days of ECOMOG, when Gambian contingent camped at a Nigerian barrack.

However, he stressed the need for young folk to take up meaningful skills ventures, noting that development may retard if the country’s young folk are not trained to be self-reliant.

"Cognisant of this fact, our president conceived the idea of establishing the NYSS, which today, has graduated over 1,000 young Gambians in different areas of self-reliant ventures,’’ he said.

He informed his Nigerian counterpart that the Gambian military render service support to the NYSS, notably during orientation of new corps members.

According to him, the success of NYSS can be attributed to the technical support received from the Nigerian NYSC. He then stressed the needs for the more exchange visit.

In a show of appreciation and solidarity, the CDS presented a silver Kora instrument to the Brig Gen. Others speakers at the meeting included Musa Mbaye, the director of the NYSS.