President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has affirmed his government’s commitment to elevating the National Service Scheme (NSS) beyond its current role.
Consequently, a new draft policy document has been developed to guide the implementation of its activities.
The President gave the assurance at the official launch of the 50th anniversary celebrations of the scheme in Accra yesterday.
He said in addition to the new policy document which was the first of its kind to be implemented by the scheme since its establishment in 1973, a draft bill would be developed and laid before Parliament for consideration and passage into law.
The new bill when passed into law, the President said, would transit the scheme from its current status into an authority providing it with the legal framework that would envisage deployment of a model corp.
President Akufo-Addo said the scheme through administrative arrangements had expanded further its scope of operations with the view to reposition itself to respond to the exigencies of the time.
“In doing so, the scheme has created and executed initiatives, to harness the potential of the youth for civic duty and national cohesion and help create employment for sustainable development,” he emphasised.
He said his government had since 2017 engaged young people including national service personnel in intentional, productive and constructive ways which recognised and enhanced their strengths.
These, he said included the establishment of the National Entrepreneurship Initiative Programme (NEIP), the Ghana Enterprises Agency (GEA) and the Commission of Technology Vocation Education Training (CTVET).
“We should not only prioritise young adult needs and build the schemes needed to become productive and successful members of society but also strengthen young people’s sense of identity and belief in the future,” he said.
President Akufo-Addo said the NSS was poised for comprehensive transformation agenda tied to the new strategic direction with other youth agencies to address specific employment needs of fresh graduates.
He explained that the scheme was to undertake under the economic enclave programme in the next four years, the deployment of 65,000 graduate youth to the agricultural enclaves, creation of 81,000 jobs to the agriculture and allied sectors.
In addition, would be deployment of 20,000 hectares of land for production, production of 110,000 metric tonnes of food, production of 1.5million beds and generation of revenue of some 92 million dollars by year four.
On his part, the Speaker of Parliament, Mr Alban Sumana Kingsford Bagbin called for the youth to imbibe the spirit of patriotism, volunteerism and selflessness.
He commended the youth for their contributions toward national development and called support for them.
The Executive Director of the NSS, Mr Osei Asibey Antwi said the scheme had not departed from its core mandate as it continued to deploy personnel to support education, health and public service.
He said the scheme was ready to become the main player in the agriculture sector producing to feed the country and Africa as a whole, but would require the support of government to achieve that.
Mr Antwi said the scheme was helping in the formalisation of the economy through the support offered to Small and Medium Scale Enterprises.
BY CLIFF EKUFUL
