President Tinubu led government has officially commenced the payment of ₦77,000 monthly allowance to members of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC).
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu had earlier announced the pay increase, bringing relief and excitement to corps members nationwide.
However, the delay in implementation caused disappointment, as serving corps members continued receiving the previous ₦33,000 allowance introduced in 2020 under former President Muhammadu Buhari.
Confirming the development on Wednesday, a serving corps member in Kano State, simply identified as Nkiruka, said the scheme has commenced N77,000, describing the increase as “long overdue.”
She said that the payment is possibly being disbursed in batches, noting that while some corps members had already received theirs, others were still anxiously waiting.
Also, another corps member, in Kano, Muhammad, expressed happiness over the payment he described as a big alert.
‘’Honestly I can’t believe it, because we all think it was just one of those promises after almost six months that it was announced, ‘’Muhammad said.
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 of this month.”
