77,000 Deployed for national service

The National Service Scheme (NSS) has deployed 77,962 prospective service persons to user agencies to undertake the mandatory national service for the 2019/20 service year.

In a press briefing in Accra yesterday, the Executive Director of the scheme, Mr Ussif Mustapha, said 66,348 of the service persons had been deployed to public institutions, with the remaining 11,614 posted to private user agencies.

Additionally, he said, 6,000 of the service persons had been deployed to support the government's Planting for Food and Jobs programme in agriculture.

He said the Entrepreneurship and Innovation module received 2,000 service persons who would venture into poultry production.

Mr Ussif also said the scheme was still processing the applications of some tertiary institutions that submitted information on final year students quite late to ensure that all such persons were deployed as soon as possible.

Regional distribution

In terms of regional distribution, the Greater Accra Region received the highest number of service persons of 29,057, while the Ashanti Region followed with 13,628.

The Upper East and Upper West regions received the lowest number of deployments of 2,385 and 1,303 service persons, respectively.

Mr Ussif explained that in making the deployments, the scheme took into consideration the government's priority areas and policy direction, the case of persons with disability, people with peculiar health conditions and other concerns, to be sure that people were appropriately posted.

He stated that registration for the mandatory national service would begin on Monday, July 22 and end on Friday, August 30, this year.

"Prospective service persons are to take note that they cannot print their appointment letters until Wednesday, July 19 this year.

"Registration will begin at all our regional centres across the country from Monday, July 22 and end on Friday, August 30. This period provided to prospective service persons is sufficient time to go through the registration processes before they finally begin their national service on Monday, September 2, 2019," he said.

Caution

Mr Ussif asked all prospective service persons to ensure that they booked an appointment on the scheme’s online portal before they went to the registration centres to go through the process.

He explained that the NSS management had resorted to the appointment system as a measure to eliminate the customary hustle and stressful processes service persons went through in previous years.

"By the appointment system, we will only book a limited number of people for each day of registration so if anyone goes to the registration centre without booking online, our officials will not attend to them," he stressed.

He further said registrants were required to provide valid identification system to be able to register.

"They are to present valid identification cards such as a Ghanaian passport, Voters ID and driver’s licence. They are to take note that the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) card will not be accepted for registration," he stressed.

He also warned prospective service persons to be careful not to fall prey to unscrupulous persons who could offer to help change their postings "because that will not happen".