The Minister for Youth and Sports Development, Sunday Dare, has disclosed that a reform bill, which has been submitted to the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), for assent, will see the injection of N14bn into the National Youth Service Corps.
The minister, on Tuesday, made this known during his welcome address at the opening ceremony of the 2023 Annual Management Conference held in Abuja,
The theme of the conference was “Optimising the operations of the NYSC at 50.”
Dare, who congratulated the management of the NYSC ahead of the scheme’s 50th anniversary, said discussions on reforms had to top the agenda of the conference, adding that the bill could not have come at a better time.
Dare said, “The NYSC Trust Fund that is coming is a part of that reform. There are other reforms that we must bear in mind, both internally and externally.
“I will give you another good news. The final document and the final approval have been waiting for us to increase and improve the quality of the uniforms of our corps members. We will also increase their bicycle allowance, their feeding allowance, and compensation to the staff. All of that has been done and has gone to the relevant finance ministry, and I am sure that as it makes its way to the Presidency, we will get a positive response that will see an injection of about N14bn into corps and staff welfare of NYSC.
“I must thank the National Assembly. At a period when people were clamouring for the NYSC to be disbanded, this bill was being pushed through the National Assembly. We found so many lawmakers who rallied around, from the House of Representatives and its leadership to the Senate leadership, to see that this bill went through the three stages, and then to the table of the President.”
The minister also called on the management of the scheme to ensure that it paid attention to the corps members’ needs, adding that “the youths of this country matter.”
The NYSC Director General, Brig. Gen. Yushau Ahmed, in his address, expressed hope that the “NYSC Trust Fund would be actualised” in due time.
“When established, it will make the NYSC Skill Acquisition and Entrepreneurship Development Programme more functional through the provision of training facilities and start-up capital to finance the businesses of corps entrepreneurs,” Ahmed said.
