The National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) has called on the federal government to increase its feeding allowance for corps members.
According to PUNCH, Shuaibu Ibrahim, NYSC’s director-general (DG), spoke when he appeared before a house of representatives committee on youth development on Wednesday.
Ibrahim said the extant N650 daily feeding allowance for corps members is “grossly inadequate,” adding that with the arrangement, they only get a meal worth N216.
The NYSC DG called on the committee to raise the scheme’s feeding allocation in the 2022 budget.
Ibrahim argued that the scheme’s budget can’t remain the same when inmates in facilities of the Nigerian Correctional Service (NCS) get N1,000 daily feeding allowance.
In October, the senate committee on interior had increased the daily feeding allowance of inmates from N450 to N1,000 daily per person.
According to Ibrahim, Nigeria cannot afford to prioritise feeding of “criminals” over corps members who are “putting their lives in service for the country.”