NSS appeals for more private sector user agencies
The National Service Scheme (NSS) has appealed to the private sector to expand its support for the scheme by accepting more personnel.
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The scheme is also appealing for more private-sector institutions to avail themselves as user-organisations to help boost the scheme.
Speaking at the maiden private sector stakeholders’ conference in Accra last Wednesday, the acting Executive Director of NSS, Mr Mustapha Yusif, said that over the years, the percentage of national service personnel requested by the private sector had not been encouraging, putting pressure on public sector institutions which had no choice but accept the huge numbers of graduates mandated by law to do national service.
However, he said it was the long-term goal of the scheme to have 50 per cent of its annual postings to the private sector, describing the private sector as a major partner.
Private sector engagement
The acting executive director assured private sector user organisations that all challenges they encountered with the operation of the scheme would be addressed adequately as a matter of urgency.
“That is why we have initiated this dialogue series to engage you on how to strengthen our partnership by listening to your challenges and recommendations so we could streamline them in our operations,” he said.
The conference was held on the theme: “Improving Private Sector Participation in National Service”.
Mr Yusif submitted that as the government had identified the private sector as one of the major drivers of economic development in Ghana, it was necessary to partner it effectively in terms of providing the requisite manpower the sector required to operate efficiently.
He said the NSS was redesigning and re-branding the scheme to streamline user and personnel concerns appropriately to be able to deliver effectively on its mandate of bridging the national human resource gap and inculcating entrepreneurship in the youth to help address the employment needs of the country.
Mr Yusif said reasons why some requests by user agencies were not met included making late requests, requests for unavailable skills and qualification specifications and inadequate requests information.
Background
The NSS was introduced in 1973 when Ghana experienced a mass exodus of professionals to other countries for greener pastures. This created a human resource gap that needed to be bridged.
The National Service Scheme established in 1973 by NRCD, 208 and amended by Act 426, served as the government’s response to bridging this human resource gap.
The Act enjoins all able-bodied Ghanaians between the ages of 18 and 40 to perform one-year compulsory national service.
Over the years, it has become a mandated national requisite for any person to be employed in Ghana.