Parliament has approved the National Service Authority Bill 2024.
The bill seeks to establish the National Service Authority, tasked with mobilizing and deploying qualified individuals to key national areas to boost development and improve employability.
The bill also formalizes the authority as a corporate entity with the legal capacity to create and implement policies and programs for national service.
During a media session on Tuesday, July 9, the Executive Director of the National Service Scheme, Osei Assibey Antwi, expressed his enthusiasm for the bill’s passage and its potential impact.
“If you have a vibrant youth, if you have a youth that has a future, if you have a youth that knows where they are going, if you have a youth that has the policy to guide them, especially at this time that the current management and the board have now moved into a new direction called deployment for employment. This deployment for employment can only be enhanced with this current backing.”
Mr. Assibey Antwi added that the bill’s passage would enable the authority to generate internal funds to support the government’s efforts in creating youth employment opportunities.
“Now, Parliament has given us autonomy, an authority vested with powers in areas where it will enhance entrepreneurship.
“With this current status, NSS can work to achieve a lot of internally-generated funds to reduce the burden on the central government, and we know the President will assent to it to give it the finality.”