The National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) has left corps members in limbo, announcing that it has no clear timeline for implementing the increased monthly allowance of N77,000. Despite the signing of the National Minimum Wage (Amendment) Act 2024, uncertainty surrounds when the new stipend will take effect.

The National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) has said it can not say when the directive for the payment of the N77,000 allowance newly approved for corps members will be implemented.

A press statement issued by the agency’s Acting Director of Information and Public Relations, Caroline Embu, in September, said corps members’ monthly allowance was now pegged at N77,000, up from the previous N33,000.

The statement said the increment would be effective from July 2024, in accordance with Minimum Wage (Amendment) Act 2024.

However, TheFount gathered that President Bola Tinubu’s administration later surprisingly paid corps members their old monthly allowance of N33,000 for September, despite the recent approval to increase it to N77,000.

According to a post by a user, @teecruie1 the social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, shared

@thatverydarkman Federal Government has refused to pay us (NYSC corp members) the approved 77k allowance as promised.. instead I received 33k this morning.. @officialnyscng do the needful

@thatverydarkman Federal Government has refused to pay us (NYSC corp members) the approved 77k allowance as promised.. instead I received 33k this morning.. @officialnyscng do the needful pic.twitter.com/iGU5tTyrRI

— HPsalm💭 (@teecruie1) October 2, 2024

Speaking on the issue, NYSC Public Relations Officer Caroline Embu, in a telephone conversation with SaharaReporters on Friday morning, explained that the delay in the implementation of the increased allowance is from the government.

Caroline said: “It is a process. Everything is a process. After making the pronouncement, the government has to work on it to be able to pay. It is not as if it is automatic (immediately implemented) like that.

“If you remember, even this minimum wage that we are talking about has been implemented since when (without implementation)? It is the same thing with NYSC corps members.

“I can’t say (if it is going to be implemented this month (October)). This is because the payment is done by the Federal Government, not NYSC. We don’t know when it is going to be implemented, just like everybody is waiting for the minimum wage.”