NYSC: States suspend monthly allowance for corpers

“We have not been paid a dime since November last year. What we were told at the beginning was that the government would pay us after the end of our service year, but we later learnt that the promise was just fake.”

Some states have reportedly suspended payments of monthly allowance for members of the National Youth Service Corps due to the economic crunch affecting the country.

According to Saturday Punch, some of the states stopped paying the allowances more than one year ago.

Before the economic challenges, some states in Nigeria pay the corpers a stipend to augment the N19, 800 which was being given by the Federal Government.

Most states are reportedly now struggling with the economic downturn and have had to suspend the payment leaving the corpers to depend solely on the N19,800 paid by the Federal government.

The situation is more pronounced in Kwara State, where the government has not paid corps members serving in the state for more than two years now.

One of the corps member in the state has lamented that the last time they had been paid their stipend was in October 2015.

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He said, “We have not been paid a dime since November last year. What we were told at the beginning was that the government would pay us after the end of our service year, but we later learnt that the promise was just fake.”

Another Corps member in Bauchi said, “No explanation has been given as to why we have not been paid our allowances. We have not been paid for January. We don’t know what is happening; all the state government just told us is that we should bear with it.”

Those serving in Ekiti State said they had not received anything since they were deployed in the state last year.

A corps member posted to one of the ministries who does not want his name mentioned, said, “Since I was deployed in this ministry last year, I have not received anything. My predecessors said they were being paid N1,250 before it was increased to N3,000, but since our batch came, we have not received anything from the state government.”

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Batch “A” and batch “B” corps members deployed in Osun State also said they had not received a dime from the state government since May and October, 2015 respectively.

Another corps member, who wants to be identified as Okoli, urged the state government to pay them, considering the economic situation in the country.

“It will go a long way in augmenting the N19,800 allowance being paid by the Federal Government,” Okoli said.

Corps members in Niger, Rivers, Cross River, Edo and Sokoto states also complained that they had yet to be paid by the state government.