NYSC allawee is now ₦77,000,but it barely covers survival. Here’s how 2025 corps members can still use a tough service year to move closer to real jobs.

The first time the ₦77,000 alert hit Sade’s phone, she was standing in the corridor of her lodge, balancing a bucket of water on one hip and her power bank on the other. The message popped up, and for a split second, she felt that familiar rush; screenshot money, corper wee! money. 

By the time she got back to her room, reality had already started doing the maths for her. The landlord had reminded them that light bill and security fee were due. Her mum had sent a voice note that ended with, “Just send us anything you can manage, things are tough here.” Data had finished the night before. The market woman had quietly increased the price of garri again. Before she even opened the banking app, half of that ₦77k was already spent in her head and there was still more to come. 

Later that evening, as she sat on her bunk scrolling through job posts and how to move to relocate threads on X, she realised something that scared her more than passing out parade: this money was barely keeping her afloat, and in less than a year, even this small cushion would disappear. The economy was rough, the numbers on youth unemployment were depressing, and she knew at least three ex-corpers in the same town who were still struggling years after POP. 

It was in that mix of exhaustion and panic that another thought slowly formed: if the allowance itself can’t save me, what can be done with the little time remaining with the NYSC year, PPA, CDS, devices and the tiny free time. 

This is for people like Sade. Not to tell you to be grateful, not to pretend ₦77,000 is plenty, but to show, honestly, how you can still use a tough NYSC year to move closer to a real first job. 

Let’s be blunt: ₦77,000 is not big money in Nigeria right now. By the time a corps member pays something towards accommodation, rides to and from their PPA, food, never-ending data, random levies and family obligations, that nice alert is already looking tired. The cost of living is high, food is expensive, transport is unpredictable, and nothing about the current economy feels soft. 

Yes, the Federal Government has increased the NYSC allowance from ₦33,000 to ₦77,000, tying it to the new minimum wage. The Office of the Special Assistant to the President on Youth Initiatives published the update, and outlets like Punch have reported that the higher allawee is actually being paid. But if you stand in the market with ₦77k and today’s prices, it is not a big break. It is barely survival money for most corps member. 

What makes this more worrying is the job market that waits after POP. The Nigeria Labour Force Survey Q3 2023 puts headline unemployment at 5%, but youth unemployment sits at 8.6%, and unemployment among those with post-secondary education is 7.8%, both higher than the previous quarter. 

So, this is a harsh environment where the money is barely enough, and the future feels uncertain. Shift your focus from pretending ₦77,000 is life-changing to exploring what you can control during service: your time, your PPA, your CDS, your skills, your online footprint and the way you plug into serious platforms like Delon Jobs instead of drowning in random job broadcasts. 

NYSC in 2025: Harsh Economy, Limited Cushion 

NYSC was never meant to make anyone rich, but in this economy, it feels even less like a paid holiday and more like a thin cushion between school and the hard ground of unemployment. The new allowance is tied to the national minimum wage, but inflation has eaten into its power. Corps members know this when they queue for food or calculate their monthly expenses; they do not need speeches to understand that ₦77k doesn’t stretch very far. 

The NBS labour force report for Q3 2023 tries to sound optimistic with a 5% national unemployment rate, yet a closer look shows that only around one in eight workers is in formal wage employment; most people are self-employed or in informal work that is unstable and low-paid. An ILO labour market brief on Nigeria describes this clearly: unemployment, underemployment and informality are all major issues, regardless of what the headline number says. 

Afrobarometer’s youth survey gives those statistics a human face. Their 2025 dispatch, Facing lack of economic opportunity, Nigerian youth want government action on jobs and cost of living, shows young Nigerians are deeply dissatisfied with job opportunities and rising prices, and many are seriously considering migration as a survival strategy. 

In this context, NYSC is a transition year. The allowance may not allow serious saving, but the scheme still gives you something you may not have again for a while: one year where your status as a corper gives you access to workplaces and people, while you are not yet fully alone in the labour market. It is not fair to romanticise this, but it is practical to recognise it and decide how to use it. 

Your PPA: Not Perfect, Still Useful 

Not everyone gets a dream PPA. Some postings are exploitative, some are simply boring. A few are fantastic. You cannot fully control where you are posted, but you can decide whether you treat your PPA as a dead end or as a live lab where you quietly collect experience, contacts and clues about the world of work. 

If you are in a school, you are learning how to communicate clearly, manage groups, plan lessons and handle difficult people. If you are in an NGO, hospital, private firm, local government office or startup, you are seeing real work in action; good or bad. You are discovering which tools people actually use, from Excel and Google Sheets to CRM systems and basic HR software. You are seeing how people talk to clients, how decisions are made, how conflict is handled and how little things like punctuality, email tone and follow-up can shape reputation. 

Even in a difficult PPA, there are moments you can turn into career capital. Maybe you help your department with a report, build a simple spreadsheet to track something, assist with social media, organise a small event, or fix a chaotic filing system. On the surface it looks like just helping and sometimes it feels like you are being used, but you are gaining experiences. Later, it becomes a line on your CV: you improved attendance records, drafted reports, redesigned a basic communication process, or supported a project that actually happened. 

If you do land in a supportive PPA, then it becomes more obvious: you’re effectively on a one-year, government-subsidised internship. But even if you don’t, it’s still worth looking at each week and asking what exactly you learnt about how the work really happens. That attitude won’t fix the stress, but it gives you something concrete to carry into job applications after NYSC. 

Skills When Money Is Tight: Micro-Progress Over Big Plans 

Because the cost of living is brutal, many corps members simply cannot put aside large portions of their allowance. For some, after basic expenses there is nothing left. That is real, and it makes all the save and invest talks feel like a bad joke. 

If saving serious money is not realistic, the focus shifts towards micro-progress on skills. That means making small moves that don’t depend on big budgets. You still pay for data anyway; the question is what you do with the hours you are already online. 

Free and low-cost content can take you surprisingly far. On YouTube and reputable learning platforms, you can pick up the basics of Excel, Power BI, digital marketing, customer care tools, HTML and CSS, CV writing, interview prep and other job-hunt essentials. 

Truehost’s guide on Online jobs in Nigeria with no experience is another example of content that doesn’t cost a naira to read but shows practical ways people are starting from almost nothing. You may not be able to pay for a premium course today, but you can slowly stop being completely blank in areas employers care about. Even familiarity with basic tools and terminology can change how you are perceived when it’s time to apply for jobs. 

 Turning Ordinary NYSC Tasks into Portfolio Pieces 

Employers, especially those using applicant tracking systems and screening large pools of graduates, are tired of empty lines and words like “hardworking, passionate, dedicated”. What cuts through is evidence. NYSC, even on a low budget, can help you build some of that evidence. The lesson plan you used to teach SS2, the spreadsheet you created to track attendance, the flyers you designed for a CDS outreach, the small report you wrote for your PPA, or the simple website you built for a local business during service are more than chores or tasks. They are potential portfolio items. 

Creating Your First Portfolio – How to Showcase Your Skills (Even with Little Experience) lays out how to present small projects in a way that shows structure, results and reflection. There is no need a fancy website. Cloud folders, GitHub, Notion pages and a well-structured LinkedIn profile can all serve as a simple portfolio space. 

Later, when you sign up on Delon Jobs, apply to graduate jobs or speak to recruiters, you will be able to point to specific things you did during NYSC instead of just saying that you served in X state and did general duties. Evidence is what lets you stand out in piles of similar-looking CVs. 

 Remote and Online Work: Testing the Waters During Service 

For many young Nigerians, traditional office jobs feel out of reach, but remote jobs in Nigeria and online gigs are starting to appear as real alternatives. They are not easy money, but they are real. Remote jobs in Nigeria describe how people are now working as virtual assistants, remote customer service agents, content writers, junior developers, or support staff for foreign companies. 

NYSC creates an unusual window. You have some income, even if small. You have some structure, but also evenings and weekends. That makes it possible to experiment. Maybe it is one freelance writing client. Maybe it is managing social media for a small business. Maybe it is doing simple tasks on a freelance marketplace. The goal isn’t to become a millionaire during service; it is to learn how remote and online work function in real life. 

If, by POP, you have both one year of PPA experience and a handful of remote or online projects behind you, you are in a stronger position than someone who only has a discharge certificate and nothing else. You also won’t be seeing remote jobs as some mysterious thing other people do; you’ll have your own entry point. 

Side Hustles, Survival and Protecting Yourself 

Given the value of the allowance against actual living costs, many corps members must hustle. They teach, they sell food or clothes, they offer makeup services, they manage social media pages, they write, they design, they do whatever they can to close the gap. There is no shame in that. It is reality. Side hustles can be useful professionally. Teaching improves your ability to explain things. Selling teaches negotiation and customer service. Managing a small Instagram page gives you content and marketing experience. These can eventually be framed as skills, not just random hustle stories. 

But desperation also attracts scams. A lot of so-called online jobs in Nigeria are just schemes to collect registration fees or push forex and crypto investments that promise guaranteed daily profits. Truehost’s article on how to search for jobs online and actually get hired includes red flags to watch for: employers asking for payment before training, vague job descriptions, unrealistic salaries and zero verifiable online presence. 

If you are unsure about an offer, ask older friends, colleagues or someone who has been through NYSC before. It is better to lose a potential opportunity than to lose the little money and energy you have to someone who never planned to employ you. 

Facing Post-NYSC Reality Before POP 

One of the biggest mistakes corps members make is treating POP as the day they will finally think about what to do next. The labour market doesn’t wait for that. It will be chaotic the minute you drop the khaki, and there is no grace period where HR managers will allow for any form of rest because you just did POP.  

Facing post-NYSC reality early doesn’t mean knowing your exact five-year plan. It means handling basics: having a CV that reflects the PPA work you did, the small projects you completed and any online or remote experience you’ve gained; having at least one online profile that actually looks alive; having a rough sense of which sectors or job families you want to try first instead of applying for every vacancy on earth. How to Search for Jobs Online in Nigeria and Actually Get Hired explain why targeted job search, relevant keywords and clean online presence matter more than mass applying. When you start engaging with platforms like Delon Jobs, that preparation becomes even more useful: the recruiters there are genuinely looking for candidates with specific skill sets and some evidence of seriousness, not just a degree and NYSC certificate. 

 You Didn’t Choose the Economy, But You Can Choose Your Strategy 

You did not cause inflation, and you did not design a labour market that leaves so many young people stuck. Feeling tired or angry about it is normal. The point is not to pretend NYSC has suddenly become a luxury experience. It hasn’t. 

But within this hard situation, there are still a few levers you can pull. You can decide to treat your PPA as more than punishment, by extracting real experience from it. You can use free and low-cost content to make small moves on skills that employers actually value. You can turn everyday tasks into simple portfolio pieces that prove you can do more than talk. You can test remote and online work in a low-risk way during service. You can start planning for post-NYSC while you’re still in uniform instead of waiting for panic to hit afterward. 

And you can choose which platforms you trust with your job search. Delon Jobs cannot fix Nigeria, but it can bridge a real gap: the gap between young people who are trying to move forward and employers who are genuinely looking for them. Delon Jobs gives you access to curated graduate jobs in Nigeria, entry level jobs in Nigeria and remote jobs in Nigeria and beyond, and backs that up with training content and a wider recruitment network through DelonApps. 

 By doing this, you give yourself a better chance that, when the khaki is folded and the last allawee hits, you are not starting from zero, but from a year of hard-earned experience and a platform that is actively trying to get you in front of the right employers.