The Authorities of the National Youth Service Corps on Tuesday has announced that the it has made improved changes to the Certificate usually issued to Corps members who have concluded the one year mandatory service to the nation.

This was disclosed by the Director General of the NYSC, Brig-Gen. Johnson Olawumi who was represented by the Acting Director of Certification, Alhaji Aliu Daura, in Abuja on Tuesday.

L-R; The Acting Director of Certification, Alhaji Aliu Daura and the Director of Press, Mrs Abosede Aderibigbe holding sample of the new NYSC certificate

Speaking at the unveiling ceremony in Abuja, the Director General of the NYSC, Brig-Gen. Johnson Olawumi said the scheme took the step to wage war against forgery and impersonation.

In our concerted effort to make the operation of the NYSC conform with global best practices, the scheme engaged in the holistic 'e-NYSC solution' with effect from batch 'C' 2014, where prospective corps members register online before proceeding to the orientation camps.

This resulted in the enhancement of issuance of NYSC certificates namely: Certificate of National Service, Certificate of Exemptions, and Letters of Exclusion.

With effect from Batch 'C' 2014, all certificates of national service bear passport photographs of the corps member at the upper right hand corner of the certificate.

This is to guarantee the security of our certificates from forgery and to block all chances of impersonation.

Therefore, Batch 'C' 2014 corps members, who are due to pass-out on Thursday, 15 October 2015, will have their certificates embossed with their photograph.

Employers are encouraged to forward any certificate purportedly issued by the scheme for verification of its authenticity or otherwise.

Effort is being made by the scheme to also make the verification of all NYSC certificates to be automated for easy access by the general public.

Mr. Olawumi said that asides the passport photograph the newly improved certificate also contained a back code with security numbers.

Elaborating on the NYSC certificates categories, the Director of Press, Mrs Abosede Aderibigbe said Certificate of Exemption is issued to a Full-time graduate, who is above the age of 30 at the time of graduation or such corps member is a staff of security agencies like Armed Forces, Nigeria Police, Department of State Security, National Intelligence Agency (NIA) and Recipients of National Presidential Honours Award.

For Letter of Exclusion, Aderibigbe further said that it was designed to take care of corps population, who are graduates of Part-time, Distance Learning and Sandwich programmes, adding that issuance of letter of exclusion commenced in 2001, and that, they would be able to register and print their letters on line. She noted that the scheme had gone digital, therefore verification of NYSC certificate could now be done electronically.