Some of the officials
The Executive Director of the National Service Scheme (NSS), Mustapha Ussif, together with the Governing Board on Wednesday, 8th August, 2018, paid a working visit to the National Service Regional Secretariat in the Ashanti Region.
The team was made up of the Board Chairman, Prof. Kofi Osei Akuoko, and other Board Members including Mr. Godfred Kwame Fosu Agyen, Nana Bediako Kyeremeh and Mr. David Prah, the Public Affairs Director of the scheme.
The purpose of the visit was to give the board members and management the opportunity to monitor the ongoing activities at the various registration centres and also get firsthand information.
The delegation was received at the regional office by the Ashanti Regional Director of NSS, Mr. Opoku Mensah. The board members had brief interactions with the staff and volunteers before heading to the registration stands.
This years’ approach
Gone are the days when prospective national service personnel had to carry ID cards to the registration centres to be verified. Identity cards such as voter’s ID, travel passport, driver’s license were pre-validated and audited before personnel were even enrolled for service this year. This approach has helped the scheme to identify theft and other related vices. Besides, it has helped to weed out fraudsters who were attempting to cheat the system by engaging in multiple registrations.
Speaking to the press, Mustapha Ussif stated: “We are here to access the impact of the mechanisms we put in place to make sure we have a successful service registration. Last year’s scandal was headache so the management sought out to put measures in place to stop such annual occurrences. I must say that I am impressed with what I am seeing today especially with the crowd control system we have put in place where all prospective national service personnel has to book an appointment before they arrive at the registration centres”.
“The system determines the number of people who can register for a particular day and that is really helping. For the first time, NSS registration is not in the news for a bad cause. There is sanity in the system now,” he added.
The Board Chairman, Prof. Kofi Osei Akuoko, also expressed his excitement about the ongoing smooth exercise. He, however, believed that there was more room for improvement since it would boost public confidence and interest in the activities and operations of the scheme.