During the interview, Olawande shed light on the delay in the payment process and reassured the public that the backlog would be settled in due course.
The Nigerian government has stated that the outgoing National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) members will receive the long-awaited backlog of the new N77,000 monthly allowance, which is expected to be paid by the end of March.
The announcement was made known by the Minister of Youth Development, Ayodele Olawande, who appeared on Channels TV’s interview, monitored by SaharaReporters on Monday evening.
During the interview, Olawande shed light on the delay in the payment process and reassured the public that the backlog would be settled in due course.
“I have explained this several times,” Olawande began, addressing concerns over the delay.
“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 explained.
The minister further elaborated on the procedural hurdles that delayed the allowance payments. “Anybody can approve anything. You must have a budgetary allocation for it. So the budgetary allocation has been done now. They are done with the process. It has been approved and signed. Now, they can start taking it,” Olawande said.
In response to a specific question regarding outgoing corps members, who have been eagerly awaiting their new allowances, the minister said, “You saw the new DG when they asked him, what about those who are going out now? Are they going to receive their backlogs?” Olawande quoted the new NYSC Director-General’s assurances.
According to Olawande, “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. The backlog will be worked on. It will not be immediate, but it will happen. We will pay them.”
He also highlighted his own role in the process, stressing the importance of collaboration with the new NYSC leadership. “Myself and the DG, we have had discussions on this. We have moved to the quarters we should move to. I’ve been working on this for a long time, and it’s going to work out.”
The N77,000 monthly allowance was approved months ago by the government, as part of an increase in the stipends for corps members.
This came after significant pressure from various quarters, including the corps members themselves, who had called for better remuneration due to the rising cost of living.
As previously reported, the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) Director-General recently confirmed that corps members would begin receiving the newly approved allowance at the end of March. This comes after months of anticipation, as the government had approved the new wage following growing concerns over the adequacy of the previous stipend.
In an earlier report, SaharaReporters analysed the realistic value of the N77,000 allowance, comparing it with the rising costs of goods and services in Nigeria.
For instance, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) revealed that the average cost of a bus trip in Nigerian cities was N923.8 as of December 2024. With the entire N77,000 allowance, a corps member could afford only about 83 bus trips within a month.
The analysis also highlighted how the allowance would stretch for basic food purchases. The N77,000 would cover 30.6 kg of brown beans or 64.7 kg of garri, with each kilogram priced at N1,189. Similarly, corps members could afford 39.3 kg of local rice at N1,956 per kg or 30 kg of imported rice priced at N2,531 per kg. Additionally, they could purchase 22.5 bottles of vegetable oil or 77 litres of petrol at an average price of N1000 per litre.
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