The Executive Director of the National Service Scheme (NSS), Osei Assibey Antwi, has revealed that personnel will still receive GH₵559.04 as their monthly stipend but will likely receive an additional allowance.
This comes after some NSS personnel called on the director to increase their allowance in the face of the current economic challenges.
According to Mr Assibey Antwi, the government is, however, working to cushion service personnel with a Cost Of Living Allowance (COLA).
“Like Oliver Twist, he will always ask for more. So if you ask me, Oliver is always asking, and we are hopeful that the President will do something about them.
“Recently, the President gave workers COLA, and once the President has started this, it will also get to their turn,” he told the media during a tour of NSS validation centres before their deployment.
The government and organised labour agreed for the allowance to be paid at a rate of 15 per cent of base pay in July 2022.
The government and organised labour negotiations concluded on Thursday, July 14, 2022.
Organised labour had initially demanded a 20 per cent COLA, but it was slashed by five per cent to 15 per cent.
For instance, workers in the educational sector embarked on an industrial action on July 4, 2022, about the COLA.
There is an upswing in the cost of living for Ghanaians which has become a significant source of worry for the deployed service personnel.
According to the NSS personnel, it will be challenging to depend on the current allowance, even for their basic needs.
“We lead that there should be an increment because now, things are really increasing. Like taxation, transportation and other stuff, so if the allowance remains the same…so they should increase it for us,” said one of the deployed personnel.
Meanwhile, over 115,000 NSS personnel began their service to the nation on Tuesday, November 1, 2022, for the 2022/2023 service year.