The Federal Government has officially commenced payment of N77,000 monthly allowance to National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) members.
The announcement of a pay increase by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu which earlier brought relief and excitement among corps members nationwide, was met with disappointment following delays in implementation of the new allowance.
For almost six months after the announcement in…, serving corps members were paid the previous N33,000 allowance introduced in 2020 under former President Muhammadu Buhari.
This development comes days after Minister of Youth Development Ayodele Olawande assured Nigerians during a Channels TV interview that the backlog would be cleared by the end of March.
For months, the Nigerian government had been dragging its feet on implementing the approved allowance increase, citing budgetary constraints and bureaucratic bottlenecks.
During his Monday interview, Olawande attempted to explain the delay.
“I have explained this several times. Some people say I always mention it’s a process, and it is seriously a process. It was not in the budget when the president announced it. Some agencies and parastatals need to have their salaries included in the budget before anything can be done or paid out,” he said.
The minister emphasised that while President Bola Tinubu had approved the allowance months ago, actual disbursement required budgetary allocations that had not been in place at the time of the announcement.
“Anybody can approve anything, but you must have a budgetary allocation for it. Now, they are done with the process. It has been approved and signed. Now, they can start taking it,” Olawande added.
His comments had triggered scepticism among corps members, many of whom had endured months of unfulfilled government promises.
A primary concern had been the fate of outgoing corps members, those who had served under the previous stipend but were supposed to benefit from the new allowance.
Addressing this, Olawande reiterated the government’s commitment to paying the backlog.
“You saw the new DG when they asked him, what about those who are going out now? Are they going to receive their backlogs? He said, ‘We have your account details; we will put it (the allowance) through.’ You may not like to hear this, but I can tell you the payment will happen at the end
