The Katsina State Government has increased welfare budget for National Youths Service Corps (NYSC) members deployed to the state by about 200 per cent.
Alhaji Aminu Ibrahim, the chairman of NYSC Katsina State Governing Board, disclosed this on Thursday at the formal opening ceremony of the 2017 Batch ‘B’ Stream orientation course in Katsina.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that 2,200 corps members were deployed to Katsina state for the 2017 Batch ‘B’ Stream II.
Ibrahim, who represented Gov. Aminu Masari of Katsina state at the orientation course is also the Special Adviser to the governor on Youths Development.
Declaring the orientation course open, the governor said that his administration placed top priority on the welfare of corps members.
Masari said that his administration would ensure provisions were made for the welfare of corps members to enable them to enjoy their stay in the state.
He promised to provide adequate security to the corps members deployed to the state.
The governor noted that the choice of Katsina as hosting camp for Borno and Katsina States was no doubt predicated on the antecedents of Katsina as a hospitable and accommodating state.
He urged all security operatives to ensure maximum security at the camp and throughout the time of the corps members’ primary assignment.
In his speech, the Chairman of the NYSC governing board, Ibrahim explained that there were two combined orientation course for Katsina and Borno States’ corps members at the NYSC permanent orientation camp in Katsina.
Earlier, the NYSC Katsina State Coordinator, Hajiya Ramatu Sanda, described the decision of NYSC management to select 15 secretariats as hosting states for the 2017 Batch ‘B’ Stream Two as a strategy to clear the backlog of graduates.
She added that the simultaneous orientation course for the corps members deployed to Katsina and Borno States at the same venue and at the same time for the first time ever was not unconnected to Katsina’s impressive track records.
“The state government has been adjudged to be the most NYSC friendly in the country.
”Secondly, the state is always peaceful; thirdly, it is one of the first states that its government keyed into the Skill Acquisition and Entrepreneurship Development Programme of NYSC, ” she said.