The National Service Authority has suspended, with immediate effect, the GH¢60 it was deducting from service personnel allowances, which it said was for a "Capacity Building Programme" being organised by the National Service Personnel Association (NASPA).

The move follows weeks of public outcry from some personnel who said they were never consulted before the compulsory deduction from their allowances was initiated.

The suspension came after the management of the National Service Authority (NSA), acting on the directive of the Sector Minister for Youth, Empowerment and Development,  George Opare Addo, and the NSA Board, ordered NASPA to halt the programme pending a comprehensive review.

Addressing a news conference in Accra on Tuesday (July 21, 2026), the NASPA President, Abdul Wahab Mohammed, said it had "listened intently" to the concerns, frustrations and questions raised by service personnel across the country over the past few days, and assured personnel that no further deductions would be made in connection with the training scheme.

Context

The suspension follows a petition from a group calling itself the Concerned National Service Personnel Association of Ghana, which in a statement dated July 17, 2026, questioned the legal basis for the deduction. 

The group asked NASPA to specify which provision of its constitution, or of the law governing the NSA, authorised a compulsory deduction, and whether the NSA had formally approved it.

At the news conference, NASPA explained that the initiative was conceived in December 2025 after its National Executive Council (NEC), made up of Regional Presidents from all sixteen regions, deliberated on how to improve the post-service employability of personnel. 

The association said it drew on a 2024 pilot capacity-building programme in the Greater Accra Region, which it said had yielded positive feedback, before deciding to scale the initiative nationwide.

Following NEC's approval, NASPA said it entered into a contractual agreement with Zeus Atlas Limited to deliver the training, insisting that as an autonomous body, it had the right to enter into such agreements independently, without oversight from the National Service Authority.

 It said NSA management was only formally notified after the contract had already been signed, a practice it described as consistent with how NASPA has historically operated.

Cost

The association said the estimated contribution for the programme was GH¢15 a month, amounting to about GH¢180 over a full service year, covering practical training and a certificate of completion.

It said it had formally requested the NSA to facilitate a deduction of GH¢60 to cover a four-month learning period, which was the amount taken from personnel's last allowance payment.

The association conceded, however, that "the financial commitment required may not have been reasonable for all service personnel."

Demand for a refund

Meanwhile, the concerned national service group that initiated the protest against the deduction of the GH¢60 is asking for a refund of what has already been deducted.

They said suspending the deduction alone was not enough and that where is the money which has already been deducted from the allowances of thousands of National Service Personnel.

They are asking NASPA to account for how much money was deducted from personnel nationwide and when every affected National Service Person will receive a full refund. 

According to them, NASPA has admitted that the financial burden "may not have been reasonable" for many service personnel. then justice demands that the money be returned without delay.