The National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) has announced that prospective corps members will henceforth be required to present fitness certificates from recognised public health facilities at orientation camps across the country.
NYSC spokesperson, Eddy Megwa, in a statement on Tuesday, November 1, said the certificate of fitness will become a requirement for registration at camps and will be effected in the 2022 Batch ‘C’ Orientation Course.
Megwa said the fitness test will help the scheme ascertain the health status of corpers and also fish out those who lie about their medical conditions.
“In order to avail the scheme credible information on their health status and also protect them from exploit@tion 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 ext@rtion of some prospective corps members by fr@udulent individuals in their bid to secure such documents some of which may not stand a test of integrity,” he said.