Last Updated: July 2026 | Fees, dates and portal links verified against nysc.gov.ng and the official mobilisation timetable in July 2026.
Are you a 2026 graduate about to register for NYSC? Share this guide in your departmental WhatsApp group before someone pays ₦10,000 at a cybercafé for something the portal does for ₦2,786.24. {alertInfo}
You have finished your final exams, your project is submitted, and now everyone around you has an opinion about NYSC registration. One person says the fee is ₦3,000. Another says you must register at a cybercafé. A third sends you a "portal link" that is actually a blog. Half of what circulates in graduate WhatsApp groups about NYSC is outdated, and some of it will cost you money you do not need to spend.
Here is what is actually true. NYSC registration itself is free. The only official payment is an optional ₦2,786.24 if you want your call-up number by SMS and want to print your call-up letter online. The real portal is portal.nysc.org.ng, not any blog. And in 2026 there is a new requirement, the NERD clearance, that most guides do not mention at all, even though it can stop your mobilisation completely.
This guide walks you through the whole process: what to sort out before the portal even opens, the documents you need, the registration steps one by one, the senate list, the green card, the call-up letter, what changes (and what does not) if you graduated from ABUAD or another private university, and the ₦77,000 monthly allowance waiting on the other side.
Table of Contents
- Before the Portal Opens: Your Pre-Registration Checklist
- Who Must Serve (and Who Gets Exemption or Exclusion)
- NYSC Registration Requirements: Documents to Prepare
- How to Register for NYSC: Step-by-Step
- The NYSC Registration Fee: What You Actually Pay
- Green Card vs Call-Up Letter
- NYSC Senate List: How to Check Your Name
- ABUAD and Private University Graduates: What Is Different
- Batches, Streams and the 2026 Timeline
- The ₦77,000 Monthly Allowance
- Common Mistakes That Delay or Stop Your Mobilisation
- Frequently Asked Questions
- What to Do Next
Before the Portal Opens: Your Pre-Registration Checklist
Most guides start with "go to the portal." That is the wrong starting point. Whether you can register at all is decided before the portal opens, by things your school and JAMB control. Sort these out early and registration becomes a 30-minute task instead of a month of panic.
Fix a name mismatch now, not at camp. NYSC warned prospective corps members in April 2026 that any difference between the name on your certificate and the name in your records must be corrected before camp. Corrections go through your school's Student Affairs office and the portal dashboard. {alertWarning}
Who Must Serve (and Who Gets Exemption or Exclusion)
The NYSC scheme runs under the NYSC Act. Nigerian graduates of accredited universities and HND holders from accredited polytechnics must make themselves available for the one-year service if they were under 30 on the date of graduation. The age is counted at graduation, not at registration. If you graduated at 29 and register at 31, you still serve.
Under section 2(1) of the Act, you will not be called to serve if, at the date of graduation, you were over 30, or you served in the Armed Forces or Nigeria Police for more than nine months, or you are staff of certain security agencies, or you hold a National Honour. People in these categories still register on the portal; NYSC classifies them from the institution's list and issues a Certificate of Exemption, which home-trained graduates collect from their institution.
There are three different documents you can end the process with, and they are not interchangeable:
| Document | Who gets it |
|---|---|
| Certificate of National Service | Graduates who complete the full service year (also called the discharge certificate) |
| Certificate of Exemption | Over 30 at graduation, 9+ months Armed Forces/Police service, listed security agency staff, National Honour recipients |
| Exclusion Letter | Part-time, distance-learning and online-programme graduates (including NOUN); printed from the dashboard, no camp, no green card |
You may have seen a claim on some blogs that postgraduates can serve "under 35." We could not find that anywhere in the Act or on any official NYSC page. The rule the official site quotes is 30 at graduation. Treat the 35 figure as a myth until NYSC itself says otherwise.
NYSC Registration Requirements: Documents to Prepare
From the official registration requirements page, every locally trained graduate needs:
- A functional email address and a Nigerian phone number you will keep through the whole service year
- Your correct matriculation number
- Your name on your institution's Senate/Academic Board Approved Result list
- A passport photograph on a white or off-white background, face fully shown, no shadow, picture filling the frame
- Your National Identification Number (NIN)
Recent batches have also been asked to have ready: degree certificate or statement of result, O'level results, JAMB admission letter, school ID card, and a Medical Certificate of Fitness from a government or military hospital. The exact upload list can vary slightly per batch, so treat the portal's own checklist as final on the day you register.
Married female prospective corps members upload a marriage certificate, evidence of change of name, and the husband's place of domicile. Pregnant women and nursing mothers are not accommodated at camp.
Do not register by proxy, and remember exactly which fingers you used for biometric capture. NYSC re-verifies your fingerprints at camp, and the official page is blunt about it: those who cannot be verified with their biometrics at the orientation camp will not be registered. If someone else thumbprints for you, camp is where it ends. {alertError}
How to Register for NYSC: Step-by-Step
The only official websites are nysc.gov.ng (announcements and information) and portal.nysc.org.ng (registration and your dashboard). Every other "NYSC portal" you find in a search result is a blog wearing a costume.
Registration on the portal is something you can do yourself with a laptop, a webcam and a decent connection. Cybercafés reportedly charge ₦5,000 to ₦6,000 for "assistance." That is a convenience fee, not an NYSC fee. If you do use a centre for fingerprint capture, do only the capture there and keep your login details to yourself. {alertSuccess}
The NYSC Registration Fee: What You Actually Pay
Registration is free. Creating an account costs nothing. The only charge on the official requirements page is ₦2,786.24, and it is optional. It covers getting your call-up number by SMS and printing your call-up letter online.
You will see "₦3,000" quoted widely, including by reputable news outlets. That appears to be the rounded amount people actually part with once payment-gateway charges are added. The official figure on nysc.gov.ng is ₦2,786.24. We show you both so you are not confused when the payment page shows kobo.
If you choose not to pay, nothing bad happens. You go to your institution and collect your call-up number and call-up letter there, free. If you paid in a previous cycle and were not mobilised, you do not pay again.
Green Card vs Call-Up Letter
People mix these up every single batch, so here is the difference in plain terms.
The green card is your registration summary slip. It generates as soon as your registration goes through, it carries your details and, once assigned, your call-up number, and you present it at camp registration. Print it the moment you finish registering and keep more than one copy.
The call-up letter is the document that tells you which state you are deployed to and when to report to camp. It does not exist at registration time. It becomes printable on your dashboard only when NYSC announces call-up letter printing, typically a few days before camp opens. If you did not pay the ₦2,786.24, you collect it from your institution instead.
NYSC Senate List: How to Check Your Name
The senate list is the master list of graduates your institution submits to NYSC. The official rule, quoted directly from the requirements page: only those whose names appear in the Senate/Academic Board Approved Result lists submitted by their institutions will have access to register on the NYSC portal.
Check yours here: portal.nysc.org.ng/nysc2/VerifySenateLists.aspx. Select your institution, enter your matriculation number, surname and date of birth, and search.
If your name is not there, NYSC cannot help you and will tell you exactly that. The list is uploaded and corrected by your school. Go to your institution's Student Affairs Division (for ABUAD graduates, the Student Affairs office) with your documents and ask them to include you in the next upload or the supplementary list. Do this the same week you notice the problem. Supplementary registration windows are short; the 2026 Batch A Stream II supplementary window was three days.
Check the senate list before you plan anything else. It costs nothing, takes two minutes, and it is the single gate everything else sits behind. A surprising number of mobilisation horror stories begin with "I assumed my school had uploaded my name." {alertInfo}
ABUAD and Private University Graduates: What Is Different
Short answer: the process is the same, and that is worth knowing in itself.
There is no separate NYSC track for private universities. The senate-list rule applies uniformly to federal, state and private institutions. ABUAD is accredited, mobilises its graduates like any other corps-producing institution, and its Student Affairs office uploads the senate list the same way.
What is practically different for you as an ABUAD graduate:
- Your single point of contact is ABUAD Student Affairs. Senate list issues, name corrections, NERD clearance coordination and call-up letter collection (if you skip the online fee) all run through them, not through NYSC offices.
- ABUAD runs on a fixed academic calendar, so your graduating set generally moves into a mobilisation batch together. Ask Student Affairs which batch your set is being processed for rather than guessing from blog timetables.
- The exemption rules are identical. Graduating from a private university does not exempt you from service. Only the Act categories (age 30+ at graduation and the others listed above) lead to a Certificate of Exemption.
If you are also weighing what comes after service, our guides on getting an internship in Nigeria and studying abroad after ABUAD pick up exactly where the service year ends.
Batches, Streams and the 2026 Timeline
NYSC mobilises three batches a year (A, B and C), each usually split into Streams I and II. You do not choose your batch; it follows when your institution's senate list is processed.
What has actually been announced for 2026, from the official timetable and circulars:
| Exercise | Online registration | Orientation camp |
|---|---|---|
| Batch A Stream II | 12–18 March 2026 | 22 April–12 May 2026 |
| Batch B Stream I | May 2026 window (closed) | 10–30 June 2026 |
| Batch B Stream II | Not yet announced | Not yet announced |
| Batch C | Not yet announced | Not yet announced |
As of July 2026, NYSC has not published dates for Batch B Stream II or Batch C. Any blog showing you a "complete 2026 timetable" with November dates filled in is projecting from last year's pattern, not reporting an announcement. For reference, the most recent comparable exercise, 2025 Batch C Stream I, registered in early November 2025 with camp from 19 November.
When registration opens, the window is short. Recent windows ran about one week, and supplementary windows ran three days. Follow NYSC's official channels (nysc.gov.ng and its verified social media accounts) and have your pre-registration checklist finished in advance, so the announcement is the start of a 30-minute task and not a scramble. {alertWarning}
The ₦77,000 Monthly Allowance
The federal monthly allowance ("allawee") is ₦77,000, raised from ₦33,000 after the National Minimum Wage (Amendment) Act 2024. The NYSC Director-General announced the figure, payments began in 2025, and as of July 2026 no further change has been announced. One honest caveat: NYSC's own website does not publish the figure on a static page, so this rests on the DG's public statements and consistent reporting by named outlets rather than an official fee schedule.
Some states add their own top-ups for corps members serving there. Abia approved a ₦20,000 base state allowance in late 2025, with extra amounts for teaching and medical corps members, and Akwa Ibom pays ₦20,000. State top-ups change with governors and budgets, so confirm the current arrangement for your deployment state when you get there.
Common Mistakes That Delay or Stop Your Mobilisation
Every batch, the same avoidable problems recycle. From official guidance and DG statements, these are the ones that actually stop people:
- Creating a second account instead of logging back into an unfinished registration or using Revalidation.
- Registering or thumbprinting by proxy. The biometric mismatch surfaces at camp, where it is too late.
- A blurred passport photo or wrong background. White or off-white, no shadow, face fully shown.
- Name, date of birth or course mismatches between your certificates and your records. Corrections go through your dashboard and your school's Student Affairs officer; date-of-birth corrections need a WAEC verification PIN; date of birth, graduation date and course of study cannot be changed after camp registration.
- Fake or downloaded documents. NYSC's warning is explicit: presenting fake documents leads to demobilisation, decamping and prosecution.
- Missing senate list entry that nobody chased until registration week.
- No NERD clearance slip. The newest one, and the one no competing guide warns you about.
- No NIN, or a JAMB record that needs regularization discovered at the last minute.
- A medical certificate from a private clinic. Recent official guidance requires a government or military hospital.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is NYSC registration free?
Yes. Creating an account and registering costs nothing. The only official charge is an optional ₦2,786.24 for receiving your call-up number by SMS and printing your call-up letter online. If you skip it, you collect both from your institution free of charge.
When will NYSC Batch B Stream 2 registration start in 2026?
NYSC has not announced dates as of July 2026. The official timetable page still shows Batch A Stream II. Watch nysc.gov.ng and NYSC's verified social media; treat any blog "timetable" with filled-in future dates as a projection.
What do I do if my name is not on the senate list?
Go to your institution's Student Affairs office immediately. The school, not NYSC, uploads and corrects the senate list. Ask to be included in the next upload or the supplementary list, and follow up until you can see your name on the verification page.
What is the NYSC green card?
It is the registration summary slip generated after you complete online registration. It carries your details and, once assigned, your call-up number, and you present it at camp. It is not the call-up letter, which only becomes printable when NYSC announces it shortly before camp.
What is NERD clearance and do I really need it?
NERD is the Nigeria Education Repository and Databank. Under a 2026 enforcement push, NYSC has said graduates will not be mobilised or exempted without proof of NERD compliance, which you get by uploading your final-year project or thesis. Ask your school how it processes the upload, and do it early.
How much is the NYSC allowance in 2026?
The federal monthly allowance is ₦77,000, in place since the 2024 minimum wage increase, with payments running since 2025. Some states pay additional top-ups on top of the federal figure.
Can I choose the state where I will serve?
You select preferred states during registration, but the final posting is NYSC's decision. Married women and people with documented health grounds can apply for concessionary posting during registration.
What to do next
Run the pre-registration checklist this week, starting with NERD clearance and the senate list check, because both depend on your school and neither moves at your speed. Then set up alerts on NYSC's official channels so you hear about the Batch B Stream II window the day it opens.
While you wait, think one step past camp. Your service year is also a working year, and the same preparation logic applies to what follows it. Start with our guide on how to get an internship in Nigeria, and if a scholarship-funded master's degree is your route, the guide to fully funded scholarships for Nigerian students shows what to prepare during service.
Fees, portal links and timetable dates in this guide were verified against nysc.gov.ng and official NYSC circulars as reported by named outlets. July 2026.
Drop a comment 👇 Which batch are you hoping to be mobilised in, and what's the one part of registration you're still unsure about? Ask below and we'll answer.{fullWidth}
