Corps members serving under the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) have decried a delay in the payment of their mandatory allowance for January.
Some of the affected corps members, who asked not to be named, told FIJ that the federal government was yet to pay their allowance for the month of January.
They further said that the NYSC had yet to explain the cause of the delay.
“I have not received my allowance for January nor have I received substantial information about the delay in the payment, only rumours that we might be paid later in the month of February,” said one of the corps members.
“While I have received a monthly stipend from my PPA for the month of January, that alone will not sustain me. I fear that I may end up taking a loan if the NYSC allowance takes longer.”
Another serving corps member in Ogun State said he had also not received his allowance and had not heard anything from the NYSC or his local government inspector (LGI). He said he thought his bank was at fault until he found it was a widespread issue.
“NYSC did not provide explanations about the delay in payment. I thought it was some issue with my bank, but then I figured that was not the case,” he said.
“I have had to call several people for financial assistance and, sometimes, I go to bed with an empty stomach. This is due to the high cost of commuting to my primary place of assignment and back.”
Another corps member in Lagos said that NYSC wanted him to show up for clearance without paying his allowance.
“There has been no information about the cause of the delay and they’ve even called us for February clearance. They said if we do not show up, it means we’re absent for the month,” he told FIJ.
“No one I know has been paid and we’ve been reporting mandatorily at our places of assignment. I am currently having to rely on other gigs to sustain myself”.
Meanwhile when FIJ contacted NYSC via their WhatsApp contact, there was no response at press time.
|FIJ
