The Acting Director General of the National Service Authority (NSA), Felix Gyamfi, has announced sweeping reforms to eliminate ghost names from the authority's payroll.
He declared that without a Ghana Card or accreditation from the Ghana Tertiary Education Commission (GTEC), no graduate will be allowed to undertake national service.
Speaking in an exclusive interview on Joy FM's GhanaConnect, Mr Gyamfi said the new measures are not just policy tweaks but a firm commitment to ending the longstanding problem of payroll fraud, which has plagued the National Service Scheme for years. "If you don't have a Ghana Card, you are not allowed to do national service," he stated. "Ghana Card is a high-level form of identification that bars those with questionable identity from entering the system." President John Mahama on February 12, 2025, directed the National Investigations Bureau (NIB) to immediately conduct an investigation into the operations of the National Service Authority (NSA) following the discovery of 81,885 suspected ghost names on its payroll.
The directive was issued after the Finance Ministry identified discrepancies after a headcount of active National Service personnel, as a prerequisite for clearing allowance arrears dating back to August 2024.
