Reps approve N4,000 NYSC registration

The House of Representatives Committee on Youth Development supports the policy requiring prospective National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) members to pay N4,000 to access their call-up letters online.

Committee Chairman Kamil Akinlabi, while addressing reporters said there were inherent benefits in the policy.
The lawmaker said the fund would be utilised to install equipment at NYSC offices across the country.

Kamil Akinlabi said the fund would enable the contractor handling the project to recoup his investment.

The House, a month ago, mandated its committees on Youth Development and Justice to investigate the appropriateness or otherwise of what it called "money for call-up letter policy" and report back to the House "within one month".

Hassan Saleh, who sponsored the motion, expressed dissatisfaction with the imposition of N4,000 on thousands of graduates. He urged the House to stop the "extortion".

Defending the policy, Akinlabi said: "From the outset, when the matter was brought to our attention, the first thing we felt was the way you are feeling. But after constructive engagement, we discovered that it was an innovation that we can't run away from."

"First, it was not the responsibility of the NYSC to mobilise corps members to get their call-up letters. It is the responsibility of the parents. If somebody schooled in Lagos but lives in Kano, to get his call-up letter, he has to travel to the school."

"So, you discovered that it is time-consuming, risky and expensive. What the NYSC has done is to partner a consultant, which is already handling a similar project for the Joint Admission and Matriculations Board (JAMB) and the West African Examinations Council (WAEC), which have eliminated similar risks to partner them through a public-private partnership (PPP) arrangement.
Akinlabi noted that such agreement was based on Built Operate and Transfer (BOT).

On what the terms of agreement are, he said: "The contractor would be responsible 100 per cent for the purchase and installation of every gadget that will be necessary to achieve that in the 36 state headquarters, including the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), in all local government headquarters as well as in all orientation camps across the country."

According to him, after the committees had looked at the various presentations, they agreed on certain aspect".