The National Services is a mandatory requirement of every Ghanaian with post-tertiary education. The scheme was founded in 1973 under the ministry of education requiring every post-tertiary graduate to undergo a mandatory twelve months intensive service to the country.
Within the services period, national Service Personnel is given five hundred and fifty-nine Ghana Cedis as an allowance to motivate and facilitate their work. Although it has been widely reported in various media that the Service Personnel have been paid their allowances, not all. The government owes the majority of the service Personnel arrears of two months.
Initially, the government was owing the Service Personnel more than two months while the various protests and conferences held by the National Service Association demanding of the government to heed to their plea resulted in the payment of only a monthly allowance.
From the months of January to March, the majority have not received their allowance yet. With the regular increase in fuel prices affecting the standard of living in the country with the comparative increase in transportation fares, food, water, and other necessary commodities, the government seems to have turned deaf ear to the plight of the Service Personnel.
The begging question now is; how does the government expect these upcoming and jobless professionals to undergo this mandatory service to the nation without any financial assistance? Is there not any system in place to check and regulate the activities of the government and other stakeholders in executing their functions?
If the government perceives these little allowances of the Service Personnel to be a financial burden on the country and therefore decides not to heed to their demands and make payment, then what image are we projecting to the outside world and the younger generation as a nation? These youths deserve to be paid the arrears of their monthly allowances because the reward of every labor is wages and salaries.
Peprah Elijah Kwasi
Environmental Health Practitioner
Contact: 0594183999
Email: peprahelijahkwasi63@gmail.com
