Parliament has passed the National Service Authority Bill 2024.

The bill aims to establish the National Service Authority, which will mobilise and post qualified individuals to areas of national priority to promote national development and employability.

Additionally, the bill sets up the authority as a corporate body with the legal capacity to develop and implement policies and programs for national service.

During a media engagement on Tuesday, July 9, the Executive Director of the National Service Scheme, Osei Assibey Antwi, expressed his excitement about the bill's passage and its potential benefits.

“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 added that the bill's passage would allow the authority to generate internal funds to complement the government’s efforts in creating employment opportunities for the youth.

“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.”