The South Sudan minister (middle) with the NSS officials
The Executive Director of National Service Scheme (NSS), Osei Assibey Antwi, has hosted a delegation from South Sudan led by their Minister for Youth and Sports, Peter Baptist Abakar.
The officials from the newly-independent African country were at the NSS head office in Accra, to understudy Ghana’s National Service Scheme to enable them to replicate it in South Sudan.
A press statement signed by Armstrong Esaah, Director, Corporate Affairs at the NSS, said other members of the South Sudan delegation were representatives from the Ministry of Finance and Planning, Aluel Beda, and Apio Adelino, as well as a UNDP representative to South Sudan, Christiana Ahenkora.
According to Mr. Abakar, the delegation was in the country to explore the possibility of signing a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Ghana’s NSS for knowledge sharing on youth development.
“We have done good feasibility studies and we have noticed that you have rich experience that we want to copy and paste in South Sudan,” he said.
Mr. Abakar noted that, the government of South Sudan had begun taking steps to invest in the youth to change their mindset and channel their youthful energy into productive ventures that would propel the country’s development.
He said their country recognises Ghana’s NSS achievements, and that was why they took the decision to come and understudy the operations of NSS to inculcate into theirs for accelerated development.
The NSS boss in his response assured his guests of his willingness to share Ghana’s experience with them.
He said the secret behind the success story of Ghana’s NSS was the effective management structure, which comprised the board of directors and the executives who oversee the smooth running of the scheme.
He highlighted innovative programmes the management of NSS introduced over the years to equip young graduates with employable skills that would make them fit into the world market and also be relevant stakeholders in national development.
He assured the delegation of the full commitment of the management of NSS to provide their Ministry of Youth and Sports the needed support to develop the competences of the youth in their country.
The Executive Director said there was the need for countries in Africa to pay more attention to the youth upbringing and development because, according to him, they constitute the potent resources that could be harnessed to transform the continent.
Present at the meeting were the Deputy Executive Director of NSS in charge of General Services, Gifty Oware-Mensah, Deputy Executive Director in charge of Operations, Kwaku Ohene Gyan, and Director of General Administration, Paul Owusu Appiah.
The Deputy Executive Director of the scheme in charge of General Services, for her part, took time to explain her work schedule whilst the Deputy Executive Director in charge of operations spoke on the numerous economic projects embarked upon by the scheme.
By Jamila Akweley Okertchiri