The committee spoke of the Senate Committee on Sports and Youth Development yesterday in Abuja through its Chairman, Obinna Ogba has urged the Federal Government to increase the daily feeding allowance paid to members of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC).
It said the Federal Government also needs to ensure greater investment in sports infrastructure.
The committee chairman noted that the arrangement where the government proposed to spend N1,000 to feed a prisoner and N600 on a corps member is not good enough and should be reviewed.
“Corps members, who devote their talents and skills in the service of the nation for one year, were being paid a meagre N600 as daily meal allowance while N1,000 was being proposed by the Nigerian Correctional Service (NCoS) for the daily meal of every corps member” ogba noted.
Ogba, who also decried the decreasing yearly budgetary allocations to the Ministry of Sports and Youth Development, called for increased funding of the ministry in the 2022 budget.
The committee chairman noted that adequate fund was required to drive sports development, which would ultimately drive development of youths and the economy.
He added that the N5 billion earmarked in the 2022 budget of the ministry as capital expenditure was grossly inadequate for sports development and mobilisation of youths into sporting activities.
