The Minister of Youth Development, Jamia Bio- Ibrahim, say that the government has announced a reform of the NYSC scheme from social programme of government to that of revenue-generating scheme and agency.
Bio-lbrahim stated this on Channels Television’s Sunday politics show ,where the outcry for an increase in NYSC allowance, after president Tinubu inaugurated A – 37 members committee on minimum wage presently.
The Minister, said the government would find innovative ways of ensuring that corps members’ welfare are well-taken of.
In January 2020, the government raised allowance for corps members from N19,000 to N33,000, about a year after then President Muhammadu Buhari signed the new minimum wage bill into law in April 2019.
With food inflation and increasing cost of living over the years, there have been demands by youths serving in the NYSC scheme that the government should raise their monthly allowance .
She however said, “We can’t say for sure, we all understand that resources are dwindling, even oil revenues are not as they used to be but we will find innovative ways of ensuring that corps members’ welfare are well-taken of. ”
Bio-Ibrahim further said, “When it comes to remuneration and looking totally at the holistic funding of the NYSC, we have announced a reform of the NYSC scheme itself. So, we want the scheme to go beyond that social programme of government to be that revenue-generating scheme and agency.
“The reforms which transform the NYSC into a revenue-generating agency and prepare the corps members for the job market and to be decently and gainfully employed or to be employers of labour through entrepreneurship and of course, perfect matching into primary assignment and all the support they need in that career path.”
When speaking on posting corps members to unsafe State.,she however disclosed that the scheme has taken steps to secure NYSC members by not posting them to states battling with insecurity and only posting them to safe states.
“As an immediate intervention of the government and the NYSC as an agency, we have actually stopped posting corps members to the very unsafe states.
“We have been doing it. We have been doing it in the past. There are states we have not been posting corps members to to ensure their safety.”
She maintained that , the security of corps members requires new strategies and collaboration with other agencies of government.
“When it comes to security matters, it is a multi-sectoral approach. So, it is not the NYSC alone and the ministry that is involved. We are working with security outlets to ensure corps members are safe.
“We are also working on group transportation strategies for them to ensure that they are transported to and from camps safely and to their destinations.”
