The Executive Director of the National Service Scheme (NSS), Mr Osei Asibey Antwi has made a clarion call to the powers that be, to give the Scheme a mandate to become an Authority, by supporting a draft bill which is currently in the bossom of the President.
According to Mr Antwi, obtaining the status of an Authority will enable the Scheme enter into joint ventureship with other companies and engage in commercial activities to generate revenue internally, to augment their activities.
He said generating IGF will help the Scheme not to rely on only the government but also bear some of its operational cost.
“We have worked on all the documents to transition us to become an Authority because without becoming an Authority there is a lot of things that we cannot do,” Mr Antwi said.
He made the appeal at the State of the Agencies Report, a weekly media conference organised by the Ministry of Information to enable state agencies reach out to the public on activities being undertaken in their various agencies.
Throwing more light on the need for state actors to support the draft bill, the Executive Director demonstrated the work the Scheme has undertaken in contributing its quota to the economy.
He said one of such areas is in the agric sector where the scheme has grown farm products to support the school feeding program.
He noted that the scheme supplied Cereals to the National Food Buffer Stock Company and the Poultry Industry and also possess piggery, rabbitry, aquaculture facilities and poultry.
Mr Antwi said all these were made possible under the Integrated Demonstrated Farms that the Scheme has set up at Papao, Haatso-Accra and other farms across the country.
Aside agric, Mr Antwi also said the Scheme has a “Deployment for Employment” initiative that provides competency-based skills training through partnerships with the private sector to the NSS personnel.
He said the approach is intended to fill the “missing middle” where most graduates fall off because they do not have the right competencies and skills needed for the job market, either as employees or self-employed and “so the initiative serves as drivers in shaping and equipping the graduate youth for the job market.”
Mr Antwi noted that these partnerships and many more are the things the Scheme would want to venture into, but would need the powers that Authorities possess before it can delve into those areas, hence the appeal.
“The work that we want to do, we need a lot of powers to support us to be able to do it. So if we are an Authority, there is a lot that we can do. As at now we are a Scheme, we are limited in doing so many things. We cannot engage in commercial ventures, we cannot go beyond our scope…”
He said the Scheme has done almost all the consultation works on the draft bill and has submitted it to the President through the Ministry of Education and called on all to support it.
