NYSC Online Registration:Stakeholders Demand OutrightCancellation Of Fee

A cross section of parents and prospective
corps members have called for an outright
cancellation of the National Youth Service
Corps (NYSC) online registration fee.
The stakeholders made the demand in
separate interviews with the News Agency of
Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja on Monday.
They said that the online registration fee was
too exorbitant for prospective corps
members to bear.
They also said the increasing economic
hardship in the country and other socio-
economic factors should be put into
consideration by the appropriate authorities.
Mr Jonah Ugwu, a parent resident in the FCT,
said the idea of making NYSC mobilisation
electronic compliant was a good one, but
noted that it was ill-conceived.
He said the initiators of the policy did not
consider a lot of factors before coming up
with the cost and other logistics for the new
method of mobilisation and registration.
“The idea is a wonderful one but the timing
is wrong, where will these young graduates
get N4,000 to register for the scheme.
“I am not against the new format for
registration, but it should be made free in
the first instance then subsequently the
corps could be levied a token,’’ he said.
Mr Dairus Akaleku, also a parent, decried the
measure adopted by the NYSC to introduce
the new system of registration.
He said the entire process has been marred
by the high charges fixed for the exercise.
According to Akaleku, the online registration
is a good initiative, but frowned at the high
fee as the same result could be achieved at a
cheaper rate.
Akaleku advised the NYSC management to
reverse the fee to N500 or at most N1,000 to
enable all prospective corps members buy
into the new method.
Mrs Ijeoma Okeke, a businesswoman in the
FCT, said government should realise that the
fee for the registration would be an added
burden to parents without any
commensurate increase in their income.
“Where are the parents going to get the
money from, business is not booming and
there has not been increase in the income of
those working in government
establishments.
“This is absolutely unacceptable and
unnecessary, can’t there be some other ways
of introducing the new format other than
asking the jobless graduates to pay for the
call up letters, it is sad,’’ she said.
A prospective corps member resident in the
FCT, who spoke on the condition of
anonymity, told NAN that he could not afford
the said amount for his call up letter.
He told NAN on condition of anonymity that
the idea was novel and preferred it to the
manual method.
But corps member said he had to save
money to get other needs to participate in
the scheme.
He appealed to the authorities to make it free
for all prospective corps members.
He stressed that making it optional was not
in the best interest of the registration
process.
Another prospective corps member, who also
did not want her name mentioned, wondered
why government could not make adequate
provision for the new initiative.
She said the NYSC management could liaise
with the mobilising institutions to get the
needed data about the graduating students
and feed same to the NYSC for the electronic
registration.
“As far as am concerned NYSC does not need
to embark on a separate data capturing
exercise for the sake of mobilising corps
members.
“Most schools now register students online,
so the schools can arrange for special
registration for graduating students which
they can transfer to the NYSC for the purpose
of mobilisation.
“This will save us the stress of paying any
amount for the registration,’’ she said.
NAN recalls that the NYSC stakeholders’
conference endorsed the online registration
process at its end of year meeting, but
suggested a downward review of the cost.
(NAN)