The National Service Secretariat (N.S.S.) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Kosmos Innovation Center (K.I.C.) to assist small enterprises under the mentorship of K.I.C. to scale up their capacity by supporting them with fresh Ghanaian graduates.

The agreement to be executed under the Kosmos Innovation Center Incubation Hub will see graduates from universities across Ghana groomed by businesses under the K.I.C. Programmes by orienting them with skills and tools that will adequately prepare them for future opportunities. 

The initiative will also help imbibe the essence of entrepreneurship among these Graduates and potentially recruit them into the very prospective field.

Speaking during the signing ceremony, the Executive Director of KIC, Benjamin Gyan-Kesse, expressed his concern for the increasing rate of unemployment rate in the country and said it was essential for a structured programme involving public-private partnership to bridge the knowledge and skills gap among graduates.

He disclosed that aside from enabling the startups under the mentorship of KIC to scale up by providing them labour, the initiative was also KIC's module to add value to graduates.

He commended NSS for their commitment to the project.

"I applaud the National Service Secretariat for considering this a viable venture to partner with. Their support to post National Service Personnel to use their service period to develop and grow businesses within the KIC landscape is highly plausible," the Executive Director of KIC said.

Mr Gyan-Kesse added “this partnership pumps heightened optimism and excitement that we hope to channel into breaking the chain of graduate unemployment by providing unparallel technical opportunities to graduates while supporting small businesses to thrive."

Executive Director of the National Service Secretariat, Osei Assibey Antwi stated that his organisation was committed to collaborating with key public and private agencies to provide employment opportunities for NSS personnel after their service period.

"The deficit we are facing in the employment scene in Ghana could be curbed when we adequately equip the youth to venture into entrepreneurship, even better when it is Agripreneurship”, Mr. Assibey Antwi said.

“We are very thrilled to be on board this project”, he added.