Minimum Wage: NYSC to Spend ₦307.6bn on Corps Members’ Allowances

The National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) may allocate up to ₦307.6 billion for the mobilisation and payment of corps members’ allowances, according to The PUNCH.

This expenditure follows the increase in corps members’ stipends from ₦33,000 to ₦77,000, as announced by the NYSC in September 2024. The raise came after the new minimum wage bill was signed into law in May 2024.

Each year, the NYSC mobilises between 1,200 and 1,500 corps members per orientation exercise across camps in all 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory. The process occurs in three batches—A, B, and C.

This means that each batch consists of approximately 55,500 corps members, resulting in a total of 333,000 mobilised annually.

With the new allowance of ₦77,000 per corps member, the total cost for one batch reaches ₦25.64 billion.

Over the course of a year, this brings the total expenditure on corps members’ allowances to ₦307.6 billion.

In the 2025 budget proposal presented by President Bola Tinubu to the National Assembly in December 2024, the Federal Government allocated ₦430.7 billion to the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC), marking the highest budgetary allocation in the past five years.

Of this amount, ₦372.9 billion—accounting for 86.5% of the total—was designated for corps members’ allowances.

However, five months after the announcement of the new ₦77,000 allowance on September 25, 2024, the Federal Government has yet to implement the payment.

Following the failure to disburse the new stipends in February, the NYSC’s acting Director of Press and Public Relations, Caroline Embu, stated that the scheme was still awaiting the necessary cash backing.

“The cash backing is still being awaited,” Embu briefly responded.