NSA formerly NSS to finalise agreement with Gambia on personnel posting

The National Service Authority (NSA) formerly National Service Scheme (NSS) is set to finalise an agreement with Gambia that will see Ghanaian national service personnel with specialised skills being deployed in that country.
The delegation to visit the Gambia led by the Director-General of the National Service Authority, Osei Assibey Antwi, will engage their Gambian counterparts on how to address certain mutual manpower requirements.
Speaking to the Daily Graphic on the development, the NSA Director said his outfit has had requests from Liberia, Sierra Leone and some neighbouring francophone countries for Ghanaian national service personnel to be deployed there.
“The development of personnel goes beyond a single institution and this requires strategic partnership and collaboration at local and international levels,” Mr Osei Assibey Antwi said in an interview with the newspaper.
Osei Assibey said amid the change in its nomenclature from a (National Service) Scheme to (National Service) Authority, the NSA, in the performance of its functions, could enter into a contract or any other related transaction.
His comment comes after the Parliament of Ghana passed the National Service Authority Bill 2024 to make the National Service Scheme (NSS) to become an Authority.
Amid the passage of the National Service Bill into law, the Authority now have the requisite legal capacity to develop and implement policies, and programmes for national Service.
The Bill also provides for collaboration between relevant institutions to create a safety net for graduates who successfully complete their mandatory national service.
It also promote employability, entrepreneurship, technology and innovation among persons qualified to undertake national service.
Reacting to passage of the NSA Bill, Mr Osei Assibey Antwi said “Now, Parliament has given us an autonomy, an authority that is vested with powers in areas where it is going to enhance entrepreneurship.
With this current status, NSS can work to achieve a lot of internally-generated funds to reduce burden from the central government and we know the President will assent to it to give it the finality,” the NSS official said.
The National Service Authority Bill, 2024, was laid in Parliament by the Minister for Education, Dr Yaw Osei Adutwum under a certificate of urgency on the 14th of last month pursuant to a Cabinet Memorandum dated.
It was referred to the Committee on Education for determination of the urgency or otherwise. The committee determined the bill to be of urgent nature and urged the House to pass it under a certificate of urgency.