The Director General of the National Service Authority (NSA), Felix Gyamfi, has announced that prospective graduates without a valid Ghana Card will be ineligible for national service registration.

According to Mr Gyamfi, this directive forms part of the Authority’s efforts to eliminate ghost names from its payroll.

Addressing a press conference on Thursday, 13th February 2025, he emphasised that strict measures were being introduced to ensure only legitimate personnel were enlisted.

“If you do not have a valid Ghana Card ID, you will not be allowed into our system. If you are a prospective graduate without a Ghana Card, you will not be permitted to undertake national service. These are some of the steps we are taking to remove ghost names,” he stated.

The NSA boss criticised the previous administration for failing to enforce policies designed to curb payroll fraud, attributing the persistence of ghost names to weak leadership. “This was a leadership failure. The necessary checks that should have been in place to safeguard taxpayers' money were ignored,” he remarked.

A recent headcount of active National Service personnel, commissioned by the Minister for Finance as a prerequisite for settling outstanding allowances dating back to August 2024, uncovered over 81,885 suspected ghost names on the NSA payroll.