NYSC mandates all youth corpers to produce certificate of fitness upon arrival in camp

NATIONAL Youth Service Corps (NYSC) officials have announced that prospective members will henceforth be required to present fitness certificates from recognised public health facilities at orientation camps across the country.

Under a scheme to address growing health concerns from corp members, presenting a certificate of fitness will become a requirement for registration at camps. NYSC spokesman Eddy Megwa, said that the certificate of fitness will become a requirement for registration at camps, beginning with the 2022 Batch C orientation course.

According to Mr Megwa, the fitness test is to help the scheme ascertain the health status of corpers and to fish out those who lie about their medical conditions. He added that rising fake certificates racketeering and desperation for service undermine the NYSC scheme and the government is looking to address all these concerns.

Mr Megwa said: “This is in order to avail the scheme with credible information on their health status and also protect the corpers from exploitation by unscrupulous persons. It is pertinent to note that the NYSC orientation camp clinics across the nation are managed by the National Health Insurance Authority with the supervision of consultants from tertiary health institutions.

“In view of the regimentation and physical demands of some activities of the NYSC orientation programme, the management of the scheme introduced presentation of Certificate of Fitness from recognised public health facilities by prospective corps members as a requirement for registration at the orientation camp. The essence is to enable camp officials manage those who are not fit to undertake certain activities in the camp.

"This has been largely misunderstood, leading to extortion of some prospective corps members by fraudulent individuals in their bid to secure such documents some of which may not stand a test of integrity.“