The Minister of Education, Olatunji Alausa, has called for the extension of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) scheme from one to two years. This development comes as the Federal Government also assures that corps members who recently completed their service year will benefit from the newly approved N77,000 monthly allowance.
Alausa made the proposal on Friday when the Director-General of NYSC, Brigadier General Olakunle Akinyemi Nafiu, paid him a courtesy visit at his office in Abuja.
According to a post on NYSC’s official Facebook page, the minister also advocated for an expansion of the Skill Acquisition and Entrepreneurship Development (SAED) programme to equip corps members for job creation.
“The minister also advocated for the extension of national service from one to two years, with the expansion of NYSC Skill Acquisition and Entrepreneurship Development Training programme content for corps members,” the post read.
Alausa further stressed the need to deploy more graduate teachers to rural schools to bridge the educational manpower gap and commended NYSC for sanitising the mobilisation process.
He lauded the Corps’ efforts in curbing certificate racketeering, especially among foreign-trained graduates from within West Africa.
Read also:FG begins N77,000 NYSC allowance payment after delay
“You have done so well as an organisation. Let NYSC give people more opportunities to become job creators that will meet the needs of the country,” Alausa said.
He also disclosed that the Ministry of Education was working to digitise the verification process for foreign-trained Nigerian graduates and pledged continued collaboration with NYSC to enhance national development through education.
Speaking earlier, Nafiu expressed appreciation for the ministry’s support and ongoing reforms. He proposed the creation of a database to monitor Nigerian youths studying abroad, which he said would help address the issue of fake graduates.
“NYSC is ready to comply with policy guidelines as directed by the Federal Government. We are also trying to reform the Scheme to conform with the present national needs,” Nafiu said.
Meanwhile, Nafiu, at a separate event on Thursday during the Batch A 2025 Pre-Mobilisation Workshop in Abuja, assured that corps members who recently completed their service year would not be excluded from the N77,000 allowance recently approved by the Federal Government.
Afrocover reports that the payment began last month, nearly eight months after President Bola Tinubu signed the new minimum wage into law.
Addressing stakeholders, Nafiu stated, “The government is quite conscious of its promise and within the budgetary provision, the government is going to handle that.”
“Once funds are released to us to offset the arrears, we will pay them. Even our corps members who passed out recently will benefit. Once we receive cash backing for the arrears, we are going to credit them; we have their bank details,” he added.
He assured Nigerians that the government remained committed to the welfare of the youth, saying, “Nigerians should not fret about that because the government is both responsible and responsive to their needs.”
The Permanent Secretary of the Federal Ministry of Education, Abel Olumuyiwa Enitan, also reaffirmed the ministry’s readiness to partner with NYSC to uplift the education sector.
