Digitalisation of national service operations save nation GH¢112 million

Digitalisation of the operations of the National Service Scheme (NSS) has saved the country about GH¢112 million in payments to undeserving people in the current service year, the Executive Director of the scheme, Mr Osei Assibey Antwi, has said. 

Making the disclosure during an unannounced visit by the Vice-President, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, to the NSS head office in Accra last Monday, Mr Antwi said the introduction of the Metric app, which combines facial recognition technology and Identity card checks for verification and validation, had so far blocked the enrolment of 14,027 potential fraudsters onto the scheme for the 2021-2022 service year.

“We had them (ghost names) on our list as potential service persons, but they run away and could not register because the system raised red flags and weeded them out.

“The digitalisation of our operations started with my predecessor and has continued since I came into office and has, indeed, saved the country a lot of money,” he added.

Significance

Mr Antwi, who conducted the Vice-President round the offices, said the entire service process had been digitalised, making it easier and more user friendly.

Besides, he said, it had made it possible to introduce new modules based on specialisation of personnel in areas such as building technology, agriculture and accounting, and the fostering of relationship with relevant institutions.

“Over 40,000 accounting students are produced every year, and in order to make proper use of their talent, we are holding discussions with the Ghana Revenue Authority to partner us to provide basic bookkeeping services for government agencies and the private sector,” the executive director said.

He added that similar discussions were ongoing with the EXIM Bank to provide start-up capital and tools for those trained in agriculture after internship at the Dawhenya Greenhouse facility.

Also, service persons with background in Information and Communications Technology (ICT) were receiving training on growing businesses in the ICT sector at 24 locations across the country.

Commendation

Dr Bawumia commended the leadership of the NSS for their “out-of-the-box thinking” and said the fruits of digitalisation, designed to formalise the economy and fight corruption, were beginning to manifest.

“The use of technology in just one institution has saved us GH¢112 million. Imagine how much will be saved if 10 institutions or the entire public sector infuses digitalisation in its operations, especially in the verification of workers before the payment of compensation,” he said.

“I am hearing exciting things about your operations; keep it up, you are doing a good job,” the Vice-President added.