The Acting Director of the Ghana National Service Authority, Felix Gyamfi, has assured National Service personnel across the country that the distribution of some outstanding allowances will begin today (February 13, 2025).
This follows a directive from President John Dramani Mahama aimed at addressing the backlog of payments that has left many personnel financially strained for months.
Speaking on Joy FM’s PM Express on Wednesday, February 12, Gyamfi commended President Mahama for swiftly tackling the issue, highlighting the President’s longstanding concern over delays in service allowance payments.”We should be grateful to President John Mahama.
You’ve realised that even before he became president, he had his worries about the delay in payment of service personnel, especially so when the service allowance is a meagre ¢715, considering that we have serious inflation issues around us,” Gyamfi stated.
“So he sat down, and once we presented the figures to him, he ordered for a complete payment of all arrears,” he added.
Gyamfi confirmed that allowances from August to December would be cleared, bringing relief to thousands of National Service personnel who have endured prolonged financial difficulties due to the delays.
“From tomorrow, service personnel will start receiving all arrears due them, from, I think, all the way from August, September, October, November, December,” he assured.
The NSS Acting Director attributed the persistent delays in payment over the past eight years to corruption and mismanagement, describing the situation as deep-rooted inefficiencies that deprived service personnel of their rightful allowances.
“Why has it become so? I think in the last eight years, it all became part of humongous corruption, the incompetence that we had to deal with because you didn’t understand why a service person’s meagre allowance due them will not be paid on time,” he lamented.
Addressing concerns over the low allowance of ¢715, Gyamfi hinted that President Mahama is considering an upward adjustment, following the elimination of corrupt practices that had previously drained the scheme’s resources.
“I think President Mahama understands the circumstances that we are in and has reduced the corruption, the thievery, and the scheme by that much. And I’m sure already he’s thinking about, okay, can we claw back some of the money we saved? So it’s in the pipe a little bit. I’m sure he’s thinking about it,” he revealed.
