The management of the National Service Scheme (NSS) has said it has noted with concern the activities of some unscrupulous persons parading as moderators or agents of the scheme on various social media platforms and extorting money from prospective national service personnel with the view of assisting them to be posted to their preferred institution.

According to the NSS, there is nothing like “special posting”, adding that the scheme has no moderators or agents to that effect.

“We wish to state categorically that posting of service personnel does not attract any fee”, a statement signed by the Corporate Affairs Director, Mr Armstrong Esaah said.   

“Management, thus, admonishes prospective service personnel to, whenever approached, report such persons to the security agencies to be dealt with under the laws of Ghana,” it added.

The NSS has also warned all perpetrators of “this criminal act” to desist from exploiting innocent national service prospects in their quest to serve the country or face the full rigours of the law when apprehended.

Established in 1973, the NSS is a government of Ghana programme under the Ministry of Education with a National Secretariat in Accra, and offices in all administrative regions and districts across the country.

The scheme is mandated to deploy a pool of skilled manpower drawn primarily from tertiary institutions to support development efforts of both the public and private sectors in Ghana.

Although it is a citizenry requirement for all Ghanaians who are eighteen years above, it is currently limited to, and mandatory for all Ghanaians graduating from tertiary educational institutions who are not less than eighteen years old.

The original intent of deploying freshly graduating youth under the NSS arrangement, is to ensure that priority sectors of our national life are never lacking in the requisite human resources needed for development.