Parliament has approved the National Service Authority Bill 2024.

This legislation seeks to establish the National Service Authority, tasked with mobilizing and deploying qualified individuals to critical national sectors to enhance national development and employability.

Furthermore, the bill establishes the authority as a corporate entity empowered to formulate and execute policies and initiatives for national service.

Speaking during a media session on Tuesday, July 9, Osei Assibey Antwi, the Executive Director of the National Service Scheme, expressed enthusiasm about the bill's approval and its anticipated advantages.

“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 noted that the approval of the bill would enable the authority to generate internal revenue to support the government's initiatives in fostering employment opportunities for young people.

“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.”