As the economic crunch bites harder, many state governments have suspended the payment of monthly allowances to members of the National Youth Service Corps.
According to the Punch, some states actually stopped paying these allowances more than a year ago. Kwara State, for instance, stopped paying corps members over two years ago.
Before now, the states paid corps members posted to their domains a stipend to augment the N19,800 allowance paid by the Federal Government. “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,” said Mayowa, a corps member.
Corps members in Bauchi State have resorted to organising extra-mural classes for primary and secondary school pupils to augment their allowance as the state government have stopped paying them. “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.”