NYSC UNVEILS NEW CERTIFICATE FORMAT (photos)

National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) certificates has revealed a new design of certificates to be issued to corps members at the conclusion of the mandatory one year service to their fatherland.

Speaking at the unveiling ceremony in Abuja, the Director General of the NYSC, Brig-Gen. Johnson Olawumi said the scheme took the step to wage war against forgery and impersonation.

The DG, represented by the Acting Director of Certification, Alhaji Aliu Daura, explained that the new certificate would be embossed with the carrier's photograph in line with the global best practices. According to Olawumi, the issuance of the new NYSC certificate would take effect from Batch 'C' 2014, who will be passing out on 15 October.

"In our concerted effort to make the operation of the NYSC conform with global best practices, the scheme engaged in the holistic e-nysc solution with effect from Batch 'C' 2014 where prospective members register online before proceeding to the orientation camp. This resulted in the enhancement of issuance of NYSC certificates namely; Certificate of National Service, Certificate of Exemption and Letter of Exclusion.

"With effect from Batch 'C' 2014, all certificate of National Service bear passport photograph of the corps members at the upper right hand corner of the certificate. "This is to guarantee the security of our certificates from forgery and to block all chances of impersonation. Therefore batch 'C' 2014 corps members, who are due to pass-out on 15 October, 2015 will have their certificates embossed with their photograph," he clarified.

Shedding more light on the categories of the NYSC certificates, the Director of Press, Mrs Abosede Aderibigbe said Certificate of Exemption is issued to a Full-time graduate, who is above the age of 30 at the time of graduation or such corps member is a staff of security agencies like Armed Forces, Nigeria Police, Department of State Security, National Intelligence Agency (NIA) and Recipients of National Presidential Honours Award.

For Letter of Exclusion, Aderibigbe further said that it was designed to take care of corps population, who are graduates of Part-time, Distance Learning and Sandwich programmes, adding that issuance of letter of exclusion commenced in 2001, and that, they would be able to register and print their letters on line. She noted that the scheme had gone digital, therefore verification of NYSC certificate could now be done electronically.