Ghana’s National Service Scheme program is an important one-year program that offers Ghanaian youth the opportunity to enter the labor market by working in either the public or private sectors. The program also helps young Ghanaians to develop early contact with potential employers or acquire practical on-the-job training, while contributing to their country’s socio-economic transformation development at the same time.
The Scheme provides qualified graduates with the opportunity to have practical exposure to jobs, both in the public and private sectors, as part of their civic responsibilities. Among the objectives of the scheme include encouraging the spirit of national service among Ghanaian youths, through active participation; undertaking projects designed to combat hunger, illiteracy, and unemployment in Ghana; and developing skilled manpower through practical training. To be part of this compulsory one-year service, the government of Ghana has some laid down rules and regulations guiding participants of the program.
NSS Registration Requirement
The following are the mandatory requirements every applicant must provide to register for the NSS.
- At least one valid identity card – Voters card, Drivers license, passport, SSNIT Card
- Scanned passport photograph of not more than 1MB
- All necessary certificates or transcripts
How Can I Apply for NSS?
Imminent National Service Personnel are to follow the means beneath for a fruitful enrollment on the National Service Scheme.
Stage 1. Get an Enrolment Pin
Before starting your enrolment, it is paramount that you first request your enrolment pin. This will determine your registration progress. To get your pin, you need to write an official application and address it to the Executive Director of NSS. You should also ensure that when applying for the pin you add your full name as well as the institution from which you finished your education. Also, state the course (program) that you pursued, the year you completed your program, and the index number of your school for easy reference.
Note: Attach a copy of your university certificate or transcript to your letter. This will serve as proof that you finished from the acclaimed higher institution.
Also, note that you will need to write another letter requesting for reactivation of your code to the Executive Director of NSS.
Step 2. Arrange and Attach Relevant Certificates
After forwarding your letter to the Executive Director’s office, you need to get all the necessary documents for your enrolment. This should also include an introductory letter from the institution where you finished, a valid National ID card as well as that of your school ID. Once you are done with this, you can attach relevant certificates as well as the necessary information that you stated in the first letter which you wrote when you were initially applying.
Step 3. Wait for notification
Once your pin code is available, you will be notified via an SMS. To check for your pin code online, all you have to do is:
- Log in to the official website of the National Service Scheme.
- Locate where it is written “CHECK & PAY FOR PINCODE” and click on it.
- You would be required to enter your Index Number or School ID Number, and once you have done that, you click on the search button
Stage 4. Make Necessary Payments
When you pick your PIN, continue to any part of Agriculture Development Bank (ADB) and pay your necessary enlistment preparing expenses presently GHC 40.00 to get to the online enrollment stage. Alternatively, you can use the MTN Mobile Money Payment option.
Step 5. Enlistment Online
After you are done with the payment, you will visit the NSS portal and sign in with your details which are your username (i.e. your school index number or ID number) and your password (which is your payment pin code), to be able to access NSS application form. Once all the necessary information has been provided, then you can click on submit.
Note: You will need to download or print your receipt containing an NSS alphanumeric code. This code is very important because you will need it for identification purposes all through the process.
Step 6. Wait for your appointment letter and deployment
Once you have completed the aforementioned processes, you would need to be on the lookout for news about your deployment. Once this is confirmed and you receive your appointment letter, the next thing to do is to go and report to your place of assignment.
What next After Downloading My NSS Appointment Letter?
Obtaining the appointment letter is not the end of your placement process. You will need to take the User Agency form that comes with the appointment letter to the company that you have been posted to verify by an official signature.
Once you’ve been endorsed, you will need to head back to the NSS portal, log in, and look for the Regional registration appointment. You will be requested to schedule an appointment by choosing a suitable date and time for manual registration.
Note: Anyone that doesn’t book online is not attended to at the region zonal registration.
How Does the NSS Posting Work?
The posting/placement consideration of service personnel is determined by an interplay of a number of factors including the following:
i. National programs
ii. Policy priorities
iii. Courses pursued
iv. Choice of region
v. Requests from user agencies
vi. Human resource demand and supply
vii. Extreme health conditions
viii. Social integration
ix. Regional balance
x. Personnel re-orientation etc.
b. At the request of a Service Person, his/her original place of posting may be changed on health grounds. Written petitions may be accompanied by the relevant medical documents.
Can I Influence My NSS Posting?
One way you can influence or request for a change of your place of service is when the place that the person of service is posted to may affect his or her health (i.e if the Service Personnel has any health issue). In such a situation, you will seek redeployment by submitting a written petition attached with the relevant medical documents.
Self-posting is, however, not allowed. any Service Personnel who presents oneself on a client office other than the one to which s/he was authoritatively posted, either with or without conspiracy of the authorities of the client office won’t be perceived as having done public assistance and will be made to confront the suitable assents.
How to Check for Your NSS Allowance?
Although the process of downloading and filing the NSS allowance form is straightforward, there are various guidelines you need to follow if you are to receive your allowance on time. Here is a step-by-step guide on how to download and fill NSS allowance form.
- Start by clicking on the official National Service Scheme website Next,
- Under the deployment button, you will find the download option,
- Click on the download button to find a page with various options including the Monthly assessment form and End of the year assessment form.
- Click the Monthly assessment option to download it
- Open the download and a PDF form will be displayed.
- Fill in the needed details and take the form to your supervisor who will key in the necessary details and submit it to the NSS district director. This is because for the form to be acknowledged as valid, it has to be signed and stamped by the supervisor and submitted to the district office by the 15th of every month.
