Members of the National Youth Service Corps, NYSC, will receive the new minimum wage as allowance starting next year, the Director-General of the scheme, Shuabu Ibrahim, has assured.
Ibrahim made the confirmation in a message to PREMIUM TIMES on Thursday, December 12, 2019, when the newspaper reached out to him on the matter.
The NYSC boss said the allowance of corps members was being reviewed to reflect the new minimum wage of N30,000 per month by 2020 as it had been captured in the yet-to-be-assented appropriation bill.
The budget was increased by lawmakers from N10.33 trillion presented by President Muhammadu Buhari on October 8, 2019, to N10.6 trillion.
“We’ve told our corps members that the allowance was captured in the 2020 Budget,” Mr Ibrahim said.
“Once signed into law by Mr President, payment will commence.
“The Hon Minister of Youth and Sports Development reiterated this too when he addressed the Corps members in Lagos,” said the NYSC boss.
Earlier in October, the minister of youth and sports, Sunday Dare, said the federal government was planning for the payment of the minimum wage to youth corp members.
He said the NYSC Director-General would provide details of the new allowance after a briefing from the Ministries of Finance and Youth and Social Development.
Youth corps members are currently being paid about N19,800 monthly as allowance by the federal government.
Following the approval for the payment of N30,000 minimum wage by the federal government on April 18 this year, the government and organised labour recently reached an agreement on the consequential adjustment which had been a debated matter for some months.
The government had stated December 31 as the deadline for the payment of arrears on the minimum wage.
