The Director General of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC), Brigadier-General Johnson Olawumi, has explained why prospective corps members are being charged N4,000 for online registration.

The DG, in an interview with reporters in Abuja on Friday, explained that the fee is “for the entire package of online registration” and “not just for printing call-up letters.”

“It is not true that corps members are being asked to pay to serve their country, far from it. The NYSC and the government appreciate the enormous sacrifice that corps members have made and continue to make for the unity and the development of this country. The scheme will continue to explore ways to ensure that corps members serve the nation in safety and with ease.

“This latest initiative was conceived in that spirit. Based on feedbacks and requests from past corps members, the initiative was designed to lessen the costs and risks associated with corps members travelling to their schools to pick up call-up letters.

“Paying to process call-up letters online is totally optional. It is not compulsory. NYSC made it optional because of the realisation that not every corps member will need or can afford it.

“As said above, picking up call-up letters from schools have always been and remains the responsibility of prospective corps members. There are associated costs and risks to this, which varies for individuals.

“The N4000 is not just for printing call-up letters. It is for the entire package of online registration, which requires the deployment of IT hardware and software and personnel to orientation camps all over the country.

“It also gives those who subscribe to it the advantage of processing their registration online, saving time during registration at the orientation camps and allowing them to use their thumbprints to identify themselves in case they lose or are dispossessed of their call-up letters.

“In the past, corps members who lose or are dispossessed of their call-up letters had to go through a cumbersome process of swearing affidavits, getting validation from their schools which takes time and may force them to enlist on another batch.”

With online registration, those who are unfortunate to lose their letters can identify themselves with their fingerprints. So the N4000 fee is for the entire process and package of benefits,” he explained.

He explained that the initiative was deisgned “with all sense of fairness and sensitivity” stressing that it is not extortionist as extortion implies the use of open or subtle threat.”


http://www.tribune.com.ng/news/top-stories/item/17122-nysc-dg-explains-n4-000-charges

well Nysc is selling their birth right little by little, because i dont expect to pay that sum and get sent to one gbe gbe village without getting a refund

4000 to go and suffer.

These are the people that will shout loudest that somebody is corrupt and does not know how to run government!

Another trend to corruption introduced in Jonathan regime, the first that was introduced was for the unemployed graduate to be paying 1000 or 2000 naira for registration for job opportunities. The immigration job that sent many graduate to their untimely grave which turn out to be a fraud is swept under the carpet like several other cases of corruption and stealing in Jonathan's regime with no one to be held responsible or prosecuted. U can see the dg defending 4000 online registration, just imagine the thousand of candidates multiply by 4000. How was use to build the website of registration, who's account are they paying the money, how much return are they giving to Jonathan and how much are they remitting to FIR.

In as much as I think the money is high I still believe the motive is right. Though they may need to increase the transport and bicycle allowance in camp. I know the kind of stress I went through during my own registration at the camp and like I gathered, the online registration was contracted to a private firm and so they have to make money. To me the best way would have been for the FG to put this part into budget also to make sure prospective corps members don't spend a dime since this is the main course of the NYSC programme. But it will take a very long process for that to be achieved cos there's this belief by some elites especially the legislators that the NYSC programme is taking up too much money and not yielding the required results. Therefore, in my opinion, the registration is necessary but the fee should be reduced or removed entirely.