Mustapha Ussif
Executive Director of the National Service Scheme (NSS), Mustapha Ussif, says the scheme has seen major transformation under the leadership of President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo; working through the board and management, by shifting away from manual paper-based processes to adopting digital innovation.
According to him, there was an urgent need to reposition the scheme on a higher pedestal worthy of its mandate and align it to the changing times to deliver quality service, considering the critical role it plays in the nation building process.
“Today, the scheme can boast of innovations across all facets,” he noted and added that the operational digital innovation had provided faster and more convenient processes for service personnel to register to the scheme and obtain information about their placement and deployment as well as their monthly stipends.
Addressing the 2019 staff conference of NSS in Kumasi, Mr Ussif stated that the switchover had also allowed more sophisticated, date-driven decisions by management who are focused on developing the service transformation and agile growth of businesses through entrepreneurship programmes.
The three-day conference was aimed at soliciting ideas on how to collectively improve the operations of the scheme using contemporary state-of-the-art technologies and innovations.
The NSS boss asserted that the transformation had again reduced to the barest minimum, the issue of impersonation, indicating that as NSP it is a pre-requisite for prospective personnel to be biometrically verified.
He said the scheme had integrated its data base to the state agencies such as the passport office, the Electoral Commission, DVLA, and SSNIT to collaborate information provided by NSP during registration period.
He thanked members of the board for their support to many of the innovation taking place, pointing out that over the years, service personnel went through queues amidst discomfort to undergo registration exercise.
“Management, after examining the unfortunate incident that occurred at isolated registration centres in the 2017/2018 service year, resolved to use technology, hence the deviation from the old-aged registration process,” Mr Ussif stressed.
He said for the 2018/2019 and 2019/2020 service years, National Service Personnel (NSP) received notification of their service placements on phones and did online appointments for their convenience.
From Ernest Kofi Adu, Kumasi