The National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) has solicited support for the establishment of a Trust Fund that would enable the scheme manage its operations effectively.
The Kaduna state Coordinator, Alhaji Isa Wana, made the call while launching NYSC members into the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) programme in Kaduna, on Friday.
Wana said that the Trust Fund bill had scaled the second reading and was awaiting a public hearing on Feb. 24.
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He said that since its establishment on May 22, 1973, the scheme had always relied on the national budget for its programmes, and that COVID-19 had reduced its sources of revenue to government, which also affected the scheme.
“We cannot continue to beg the government for funds; this is why the scheme came up with the idea to lobby the government to form a trust fund for the NYSC.
“The trust fund would be derived from all awarded contracts of the Federal Government which, in a short time, would have accumulated large enough to service our needs without the national budget.
“The trust fund will also be large enough to sponsor and expand, give grants and loans to corps members who have business ideas on our Saed programme and also expand orientation camps,” he said.
The coordinator noted that with more than 350,000 corps members graduating annually from the scheme, the government could not afford to provide jobs for every one of them.
“With the dangers attached to unemployment, let us campaign for the NYSC trust fund, to ameliorate the burden of unemployment, through our programmes aim at equipping members with skills and other needs to be self-reliant after graduating.
“The gathering here today is to start with corps members, who are our primary clients, to help us search for a Trust Fund for the scheme,” he added.
Wana called on the corps members to embrace and campaign for the establishment of the trust fund, noting that, “It is the launch pad to the future of the country.
“Don’t forget that NYSC is the only youth-based organisation in the country for now, if the government does anything for the scheme, it has done it to the youths of the nation which of course will halt restiveness.
“Our own way in contributing to giving Nigerians good governance is by giving the youths a future that they are certain of, and it can only be done through the NYSC trust fund,” Wana said.
Mr Adam Sage, NYSC representative from Abuja, said that the pursuit to establish a trust fund started in 2016, when some corps members lost their lives in an accident.
Sage said that in September 2021, the NHIS and NYSC signed a Memorandum of Understanding to bring the scheme active and cover all corps members.
Thus, the NHIS and the scheme designed the Group Individual Family Social Health Insurance Programme specifically to accommodate corps members.
He said that corps members serving in Kaduna had five accredited hospitals to choose from but could only switch from one hospital to the other once in three months.
“Corps members are covered by the insurance from the beginning to the end of their service year, It is meant for them only and not for their family members.
“They can however, continue enjoying the NHIS after their service by paying N15, 000 annually”, he said.
Sage urged the corps members to complete their registration on the NHIS portal. (NAN)
