The National Service Authority (NSA) has uncovered 81,885 suspected ghost names on its payroll following a recent headcount initiated by the Finance Ministry. In response, the NSA has announced that all prospective graduates must possess a valid Ghana Card to register for national service.
Director-General of the NSA, Felix Gyamfi, revealed the new directive at a press conference on Thursday, February 13, 2025, emphasizing that the move is aimed at eliminating payroll fraud.
“If you do not have a valid Ghana Card ID, you will not be allowed into our system,” Gyamfi stated. “This is one of the measures we are implementing to ensure that only genuine personnel are registered for national service.”
He blamed the previous administration for failing to implement necessary verification systems, allowing thousands of ghost names to remain undetected.
“This was a leadership failure. The safeguards meant to prevent such losses to the taxpayer should have been enforced, but they were not,” he said.
The crackdown on payroll fraud comes amid ongoing efforts to clear outstanding national service allowance arrears dating back to August 2024. The NSA insists that stricter verification measures, including the mandatory use of the Ghana Card, will prevent similar issues in the future.
