Let’s take a look at the allowance for members of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) under the new administration (President Bola Ahmed Tinubu).
Has it been increased or reduced?
How much are they currently earning, and what is the government plan for the NYSC allowance?
Also, we will check through how much different states are paying their NYSC members deployed to their states, as currently, several states have announced an increment in the monthly allowances for the members of NYSC serving in their primary assignments amid the economic crisis in the country, with consumables going up in prices daily, making the cost of living high.
FEDERAL GOVERNMENT ALLOWANCE FOR NYSC
Currently, for the mandatory one-year service of NYSC, each month the Nigerian government pays ₦33,000.
While serving at their primary assignments, members of NYSC are paid a total sum of ₦33,000 from the federal government, irrespective of the state they are in.
The new government has not raised a plan to increase the NYSC allowance, and there is no official information from the government to also reduce the current N33,000 being paid.
However, there was speculation that the new government had planned to reduce the NYSC monthly allowance from N33,000 to N25,000. This unverified news was spread across different NYSC members’ WhatsApp group chats, but it was later confirmed to be false, and the graphic image with the headline caption showing alongside President Bola Ahmed Tinubu was discovered to have been digitally doctored.
So, currently, N33,000 is still the present total monthly allowance received by each serving NYSC member across the country.
NYSC ALLOWANCE AND THE NATIONAL MINIMUM WAGE
NYSC receives the basic national minimum wage for Nigerian workers as their monthly allowance. Hence, the increment of the NYSC allowance is primarily based on the increment of the national minimum wage.
High hope was for the NYSC when the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) met with the presidency for the negotiation on an increase in workers’ salaries considering the fall in the devaluation of the naira and the high cost of living, but the request of the NLC was turned down. Instead, the president announced a substantial increase of N25,000 for six months for low-wage earners of federal civil workers to help support the high cost of transportation amid the removal of fuel subsidies, and the NYSC members are not included in this.
STATE ALLOWANCE FOR NYSC
While some states don’t pay NYSC any allowance, some states give monthly support to help with logistics in their primary assignments while living in their states.
Recently, the Benue State government announced a monthly allowance of N15,000 to NYSC members in the state, while medical doctors NYSC members are to receive N100,000 each month.
Taraba State also recently increased the financial welfare package of NYSC members in the state serving in schools, with an additional N50,000 paid as medical allowance (a one-time payment) and N25,000 each at the end of each school term for housing support.
