He therefore requested a good collaboration between the Scheme and private sector to help enhance Ghana’s economic growth. Mr Mustapha was speaking at the stakeholder’s conference on the theme: “Improving Private Sector Participation in National Service”.

The stakeholder conference is aimed at providing clarification on the modus operandi of the Scheme before and after deployment, responsibilities of Private User Agencies, concerns Private User Agencies have with NSP, challenges usually encountered by service persons posted to Private User Agencies and the opportunity to solicit ideas to improve the scheme.

It was also seeking to create an interface for stakeholders to share ideas and knowledge towards maximum utilisation of the skills, talents and innovativeness of young graduates for national and private sector development while informing the Scheme’s future policy direction.

He said with the private sector as the engine of growth of the economy, its potential and opportunities were enormous adding that the sector needed qualified personnel which the Scheme provided through deployment of National Service Personnel (NSP), to improve their general administration and the use of technology to improve expertise.

He said the engagement of National Service Personal (NSP) offered financial benefits to the private institutions and that service personal took home a non-taxable equal to 40% of fresh graduates’ salary into the Public Service of Ghana. This he said, means private companies that engaged the services of NSP made about 60 per cent savings on recruitment and that strengthening ties between the Private Sector and NSS, increasing the involvement of Private Sector in the development of NSP, improving the rapport between the NSS and the Private Sector and the role of a Private Sector in the operations of the NSS was crucial.

The National Service Scheme is mandated to deploy Ghanaian tertiary graduates to undertake one (1) year mandatory service to the nation. The Scheme also provides qualified graduates the opportunity to have practical exposure on the job, both in public and private sectors of the economy as part of their civil responsibility to the state, and also afford user agencies the opportunity to satisfy their manpower needs.