Osei Assibey Antwi, NSS Executive Director
As part of efforts aimed at championing innovative programmes and creating permanent jobs for personnel after their mandatory service, the National Service Scheme (NSS) has moved from the traditional mission of “Mobilisation for Deployment” to a new strategic direction dubbed “Deployment for Employment”.
The NSS Executive Director, Osei Assibey Antwi, yesterday gave account on the prospects that this new direction holds during the ‘State of the Agency Report’ by the Information Ministry.
He outlined some of the programmes designed by the NSS to incubate national service personnel into global entrepreneurs to include the NSS-Ghana Tourism Authority Support programme, the construction of real estate and public facilities, agriculture and the NSS-TechLab partnership to design computer application systems, among others.
Modules / programmes
Mr Assibey Antwi also pointed out some of the modules as NSS-MOTAC Support Programme, which was implemented last year.
“The NSS-MOTAC Support Programme has supported the tourism industry in boosting service delivery in hotels, restaurants, museums, forts, and castles inter alia. This programme leverages technology, gender diversity, inclusivity, and astute training models to equip tourism enterprises to achieve customer intimacy, operational and marketing excellence, and profitability,” he said.
The NSS Executive Director also mentioned GNSS MSME Accounting Aid Programme, which is aimed at assisting Micro Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) to enhance their financial management practices through the provision of professional accounting services by the service personnel.
“The support will culminate in proper bookkeeping that can facilitate credit accessibility, tracking of business performance, management of cash flow, employment creation, and business sustainability for the MSME owners,” he stated. He cited the GNSS/Teaching programme, which is a collaboration to train untrained national service personnel towards the award of temporary certificates as permits to practice as teachers.
He said the over 51, 000 national service persons who were deployed to teach at all educational levels would be given, at least, a month’s training, stressing that by the time they enter the classroom, they would have had provisional teaching licences.
“There is a law in this country which frowns on teaching without pedagogic training. We have linked up with National Teaching Council (NTC), which is developing the curriculum that will be used for the short training. Additionally, a one-year Post Graduate Diploma in Basic Education shall be organised for service personnel who desire to be professional teachers but do not have teaching certificates,” he explained.
Aquaculture / Agriculture
He further pointed out the GNSS/Agri-Business model had given opportunity to some personnel to be trained in greenhouse vegetable production and management.
“The Scheme will benefit significantly from the technology transfer and technical assistance towards the commercialisation of GNSS farms. This vision is expected to be replicated in all the MMDAs. Again, this module will ensure that all beneficiaries deployed on the project will be offered permanent employment at the end of their training. This will in turn create jobs through the value chain ecosystem,” he stressed.
The NSS Executive Director said aquaculture is another sector the Scheme is partnering with other agencies to create employment, disclosing “NSS currently has a fish pond that has a capacity to accommodate about 6000 fingerlings, as well as cages on the Volta Lake and in Dawhenya that can support both catfish and tilapia rearing”.
On agriculture, he mentioned the Kumawu Youth Farm Project, revealing that the Scheme had acquired a total of 200,000 acres of farmland of which 50,000 acres have been earmarked for initial cultivation.
According to him, this farm project is aimed at creating a vibrant agricultural enclave for the many youths in and around the Kumawu township for sustainable employment.
In view of this, he disclosed, his outfit is in the process of securing the relevant documents such as the land title to formalise ownership of the entire land.
“The Nungua Farm currently rears sheep, guinea fowl, cockerel, and chicken. It has a stock of 2,100 broilers, 50 goats, 53 sheep, and 7 rabbits. The Papao farm currently runs a piggery, poultry farm, fishery, and rabbitory. The farm has 74 pigs for the piggery section and 8 rabbits for the rabbitory section. The Ohiamadwen farm is a poultry farm in the Western region. It produced 2,521 birds with an average picking of 51 crates of eggs,” he added.
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