FG To Enforce Mandatory Acceptance Of Corps Members By Parastatals

Minister of Youth Development, Ayodele Olawande, has announced plans to send a memo to President Bola Tinubu, directing all government agencies and parastatals to accept National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) members assigned to them for their mandatory one-year service.

Speaking at a press conference in Abuja on Monday, Olawande addressed concerns about the potential rejection of corps members, despite the Federal Government’s recent decision to lift the ban on posting corps members to the private sector.

Recall that on November 19, 2024, the Federal Government revoked the restriction limiting corps members to the public sector, now permitting their deployment to private sector organizations, including banks and oil and gas companies.

The minister noted that a directive had been issued to the NYSC to eliminate barriers to corps member postings.

He acknowledged reports of rejection by some agencies and parastatals and emphasized the ministry’s commitment to resolving the issue.

“Let them post them first, then we would tackle the rejection. In part of the memo that we sent to the NYSC, we clearly stated that there is no barrier.”

“Before now, there was a barrier that corps members could not be posted to this and that. Banks come and take them. If you don’t have experience in banking, how do you want to know that you are good at accounting or whatever? We should stop lying to ourselves. And this is also part of how you should learn whatever you studied.

“Very soon we are also going to send a memo to the President to tell any government parastatal and agency not to reject anymore. It is a process; we can’t do everything at once. The one in our capacity, we have thrown it out. So, on the barrier, we are also waiting, I know about that too. We will work, and that is why teamwork is good.”

Addressing the delay in the payment of the N77,000 increased allowance to serving corps members, the minister said the implementation was in process, and that the corpers would begin to receive the allowances “very soon.”

“It is a process. When the government increases so and so, it will follow a process. We are in the process, very soon they will see it. It is not rocket science. It has been increased; nobody is saying it has not been increased. But the implementation is in process. And very soon, we are at the tip of it, it is going to start, and we will implement it perfectly,” he said.