The State Interests and Governance Authority (SIGA), in collaboration with the Ministry of Information, has introduced the State of the Agencies Report

The programme, a media engagement series is to update the public on the activities and projects of some key Specified Entities to educate and promote effective transparency and accountability.

The National Service Scheme took their turn on the platform to highlight their activities and their long-term projects.

They spoke under the theme: “Ghana National Service Scheme: An Agent for Ghana’s Socioeconomic Growth and Development,” aimed at explaining the National Service Scheme’s mandate and also shared some of the key strategies, initiatives, and developments that they were pursuing.

Welcoming participants, Hon. Fati Abubakar, Deputy Minister for Information indicated that the partnership with SIGA was to provide an opportunity for key state institutions and agencies to share their success stories to create a platform to enhance accountability and transparency.

The Executive Director of the National Service Scheme, Mr. Osei Assibey Antwi, commended SIGA and the Ministry of Information for providing them with the rare opportunity to tell their story. Mr. Osei Assibey Antwi stated that the NSS was digitalising most of their processes and launching numerous initiatives, so the opportunity was greatly appreciated and a step in the right direction.

He mentioned that the Scheme had recently changed their core mission to help resolve the country’s graduate youth unemployment. “We’ve managed to amend our mission statement to read deployment for employment meaning that now we will mobilise them, we will deploy them for employment” he said.

He also emphasised that the Scheme was willing to go well beyond their comfort zone of primarily deploying graduates by going above and beyond to add value to the personnel to make them employable, particularly through trainings and partnerships. According to Mr. Assibey Antwi, the Scheme has chosen to focus its efforts in the following areas which are the NSS Teaching Program, the NSS Youth in Housing and Construction, NSS MSME (Micro Small and Medium Enterprises), NSS-MOTAC Support Program, NSS Data and Research Project, NSS Agriculture Youth and NSS IT Solutions. The NSS Teaching Program had begun, and personnel were being trained in pedagogical skills. The NSS-MOTAC program has aided the tourism sector, particularly by deploying 700 personnel who used technology to attract more tourists during the “Year of Return” and beyond; some of these personnel were hired as a result of their diligence.

Mr. Osei Assibey Antwi called for collaborations, especially with state agencies such as the Ghana Enterprises Agency (GEA) and the Youth Employment Agency (YEA), to support the youth in agricultural project, which would boost the agricultural sector and eventually translate into Internally Generated Funds (IGF) for the Scheme. He stated that the NSS’s innovative strategies would supplement the government’s efforts to combat unemployment in the country.

The engagement concluded with questions from the media, which were duly addressed, suggestions were considered in good faith.

Officials from the State Interests and Governance Authority, the Ministry of Information, the National Service Scheme, and the Media were present at the engagement.

Additional engagements for other Specified Entities are expected in December and early next year.