All Arrears Owed Personnel to be Paid Next Week- NSS

The Management of the National Service Scheme (NSS) has assured payment of arrears owed to personnel will hit their accounts by the end of the second week of July.

According to the Director of Public Affairs, Armstrong Esaah, they owe personnel only two months, that is April and May, with processes completed for the disbursement of May allowance after the payment of April allowances this week.

“Management under Hon Osei Assibey Antwi has also worked tirelessly to clear the remaining areas which for the month of May…By next week Friday, the remaining arrears will also be released,” he said in an interview on Eyewitness News monitored by opemsuo.com.

“We have money ready. We assure all personnel that money is ready for the payment of their allowances next week for the remaining month and they should be rest assured,” he added.

According to him, the April allowances have already begun hitting accounts of personnel with all personnel expected to get their money by the end of this week.

“The management of the National Service Scheme has paid the allowances for the month of April and then I’m sure they have started receiving notifications on their phones. By Friday, all the National Service personnel would have received the notification indicating that their April allowances have been lodged in their E-zwich account.”

He further affirmed the respect and value the Management of the Scheme places on its personnel and acknowledged their contribution to the country’s development.

“I will use this opportunity to appeal to the National Service personnel that the Scheme values the contribution they make to the development of the nation. We respect them, we value them and so we ask them to remain very calm. In the face of delayed allowances, we know the pressure and sometimes the disruption that you go through. We sympathise and empathise with anybody who experiences this delay.”

It comes after a group of National Service personnel declared a strike over non-payment of allowance.

Personnel laid down their tools in demand of unpaid allowances from the Authority, on July 3, 2024, as they served notice about their intention to carry on until the entire arrears are settled.

According to them, the Authority owes trainees five months’ allowances and graduates from the universities three (3) months.

In a press statement, the personnel lamented that the non-payment of their allowances is imposing untold hardships on them, making it challenging to pay for their accommodation and utility bills, transportation to work, and daily sustenance.

“Inability to transport ourselves to our various User Agencies regularly to meet our required number of days to be qualified for validation due to non-payment of allowances.”

This challenge has left them with no option other than regularly borrowing money from different sources to survive the hardship they are plunged into.

“According to NSS rules and regulations, Personnel who fail to report at post for three months after posting will be sanctioned, and we have been working on empty stomachs and other unfriendly conditions of work for five (5) and three (3) months now without allowance.

“We are also supposed to work for some required number of days to be qualified for validation for payment of allowances, and we have to always borrow money to meet this requirement. This is what we refer to as slavery, we are abused, we have been maltreated, our workforce is undermined and our service to the nation is not duly recognized.”

The group recognizes that despite being behind the success of most public and private institutions in the state, their contributions are downplayed and thereby the treatment they are enduring at the hands of the Authority.

That notwithstanding, they are asking for equal and fair treatment.