Departments and Agencies including both public and private have been advised to cut down on the dependency on the services of National Service personnel and engage their services permanently to reduce the high graduate unemployment in the country.
Mr Maxwell Kuu-ire Kpebesaan, President of the Upper West Regional branch of the National Service Personnel Association (NASPA), made the
appeal during the launch of this year's National Service Week celebration in the Region at Wa on Tuesday.
This year's celebration, which brought together service personnel spread across the Region, was on the theme: "National Service in the Drive Toward a Better Ghana".
He stressed that the attitude of user agencies wanting to depend on the services of National Service Personnel every year without employing them, was a major factor to the high graduate unemployment in the country.
The Regional NASPA President therefore appealed to the National Service Secretariat (NSS) to identify some of these user agencies who come to the Scheme to demand for service personnel every year, and asked them to also
help by employing some of the personnel posted to them.
Mr Kpebesaan also appealed to the government to site some of the affordable housing project across all ten regions of the country, to serve
as transit quarters for service personnel posted to regions where they did not have any relative to lodge with as soon as they arrived.
Mr Charles Ayoung, Regional Director of the National Service Secretariat in a speech read on his behalf, thanked the service personnel for their hard work and commitment to the cause of the Scheme.
"This service year has witnessed a significant improvement in terms of performance and numbers," he emphasised.
He said over 1,300 patriotic young men and women were deployed by the National Service Scheme to cover every sector of the economy across the Region.
Mr Ayoung stated that at the close of posting for this year, over 662 mandatory service personnel reported to the region as against 320 personnel for last year.
He said the period also witnessed the relentless effort of over 659 dedicated Volunteers helping to improve standards of performance in the educational sector especially in the rural and deprived communities.
The Director noted that the National Volunteer Service which started in the 2004/05 service year in the Region had significantly benefited rural schools where most trained teachers refused postings to.
Mr Mumuni Sulemana, Regional Youth Coordinator, challenged the personnel to be discipline and acquire adequate skills that would propel them into a successful future.