The National Board for Technical Education has blamed some polytechnics and other tertiary institutions for the delay in the mobilisation of their graduates for the National Youth Service Corps, citing institutional failures to comply with academic procedures and poor documentation of students’ records .
Findings show that many Higher National Diploma graduates from polytechnics across the country have remained stranded for months, and in some cases years, after completing their programmes while awaiting mobilisation for the national service scheme . Some affected graduates have reportedly been waiting for over three years, leaving them unable to secure formal employment or advance their careers .
The Executive Secretary of the NBTE, Prof. Idris Bugaje, disclosed through the board’s NYSC Desk Officer, Dauda Baba-Halal, that some institutions fail to enforce the mandatory one-year Industrial Training (IT) required after the National Diploma before students proceed to the HND programme .
According to him, there is a long-standing policy requiring ND graduates to undergo a compulsory one-year Industrial Training before proceeding to HND programmes. He lamented that some institutions violate the policy by admitting students directly into HND programmes immediately after completing their ND.
“This policy has existed for a long time, but unfortunately, some institutions violate it by admitting their students into HND without allowing them to complete the mandatory one-year Industrial Training,” Bugaje said .
He explained that such violations often create problems during verification and affect the eligibility of graduates for mobilisation into the NYSC scheme.
“If a student proceeds to HND without completing the mandatory one-year Industrial Training, the NYSC will not mobilise that student because the academic progression is incomplete,” he added .
Bugaje noted that the board had strengthened its verification process through its HND Admission Portal to ensure that students follow the required academic sequence. Institutions are required to upload the records of their HND students to the portal to enable the board to verify their academic history and ensure that proper admission procedures were followed .
He explained that the board plays a regulatory and verification role in ensuring that only properly qualified graduates from accredited programmes are mobilised for national service. “Only graduates from programmes accredited by the NBTE are eligible to be considered for mobilisation into the NYSC scheme,” he said .
The Public Relations Officer of Edo State Polytechnic, John Eson, confirmed that partial accreditation of some programmes had affected mobilisation. “A good number of our students have been mobilised in the past. Some programmes were given partial accreditation, and that is what we are working to resolve with the NBTE,” he said .
The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board has also clarified that it is not responsible for HND admissions or the mobilisation of graduates for the NYSC .
The Registrar of JAMB, Prof. Is-haq Oloyede, stated that the Board’s mandate is limited to conducting examinations and admitting students into first-degree, National Diploma, and Nigerian Certificate in Education (NCE) programmes, and does not extend to HND programmes .
“The Board is not responsible for admitting HND students into polytechnics and, therefore, has no data to facilitate their entry into the NYSC scheme,” Oloyede said .
He explained that once candidates graduate from ND programmes and seek HND admission, the responsibility lies with the individual institutions, not JAMB.
Affected graduates across the country have expressed frustration over the situation. A graduate of Kaduna State Polytechnic, who identified himself simply as Usman, said he graduated two years ago and had yet to be mobilised for youth service despite submitting the required documentation .
“They keep asking us to submit documents again and again, and nothing changes. I submitted my regularisation printout, but they said they could not find it. I submitted it again, and still nothing. People keep asking me about my NYSC status, and it is frustrating,” Usman said .
Another graduate, Zainab Asmau, said the situation had caused her emotional and financial strain. She claimed that many graduates of the polytechnic had waited over three years without mobilisation .
“This is not just a delay on paper; it has destroyed real lives. Qualified graduates have lost job opportunities simply because they cannot present an NYSC certificate,” she said .
A graduate of Quantity Surveying from Kwara State Polytechnic, Idayat Folorunso, said she completed her HND programme in July last year but was still waiting to be called up for service .
“I finished HND in July last year. They told us they were working on our mobilisation for NYSC, even after the graduation list was released. Those who graduated before us also waited for almost a year before they were mobilised,” she said .
Education data indicate that universities and polytechnics collectively produce about 600,000 graduates annually, while the NYSC mobilises only between 240,000 and 350,000 corps members each year, creating a significant backlog of over 500,000 graduates nationwide .
An official of Kaduna State Polytechnic, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the delay was partly due to the limited mobilisation slots allocated to institutions .
“Kaduna Polytechnic has thousands of students, but every institution is given a specific number of slots for mobilisation by NYSC. So, it is impossible for all graduates to be mobilised at once,” the official said .
Reports also suggest that the backlog worsened after the Federal Government increased corps members’ monthly allowance from N33,000 to N77,000, which may have limited the number of graduates mobilised in each batch due to budget constraints .
The NBTE has urged institutions experiencing mobilisation challenges to formally communicate such issues to the board or NYSC for clarification and resolution . The board also noted that institutions must upload student records on the NBTE HND admission portal to enable proper verification .
Experts warn that the delay is compounding youth unemployment, as many graduates remain unable to secure jobs that require proof of national service. They also note that with more tertiary institutions being established across the country, pressure on the NYSC mobilisation system will continue to grow unless the scheme expands its annual mobilisation capacity .
