Cancel the National Service Scheme; A bold proposal for economic transformation

At 39, JD Vance has been chosen by Donald J. Trump as his vice-presidential pick for the upcoming United States Presidential election. This marks a swift ascent for Mr. Vance, who entered the U.S. Senate merely two years ago. He is a U.S. Marine Corps veteran, a Yale Law School graduate, and the builder of a $200 million venture capital firm.

Vance rose to national prominence with his bestseller, Hillbilly Elegy, and is married with three
children. Such achievements at a young age are exceptional, rivalled only by Richard Nixon, who was vice-presidential candidate for Dwight Eisenhower at a similarly young age.

Reflecting on this, one wonders if such rapid progress is possible for a young person in Ghana. This thought is particularly pertinent considering Rishi Sunak, who became the United Kingdom’s Prime Minister at the age of 43. Harnessing the energy, intelligence, and vigour of our best young people is essential for Ghana’s progress.

However, several factors hinder the potential of Ghanaian youth. The lack of infrastructure, for example, means tasks take three times as long to complete. The years wasted in traffic alone significantly reduce the potential achievements of our young people. Additionally, the frustrating bureaucracy across sectors imposes emotional and financial burdens, stifling the potential of our talented youth. Ghana needs success stories like JD Vance. We need them urgently.

One significant obstacle to youth potential in Ghana is the National Service Scheme. With an annual budget approximating $100 million, it aims to instil patriotism in university (and before secondary school) graduates. As student populations have grown, so too has the scheme over the past two decades. It places young graduates in clerical roles, teaching positions, and increasingly in private sector firms.

However, this scheme is a gross waste of talent and time, arguably one of the greatest misuses of Ghanaian youth potential. We have also seen that it is another avenue for ghost names and grand larceny by officialdom.

Graduates on the scheme receive an allowance barely above the national minimum wage. This allowance sets a low benchmark for what employers are willing to pay graduates post-service. It can take up to five years for an average graduate to earn a regular salary after school. This adversely affects the earning potential of Ghanaian youth, with long-term impacts on their careers and pensions. One wasteful policy thus reduces the earning potential of our people throughout their lives.

The financial cost is only part of the problem. Deploying young people to roles they are not trained for is a massive loss for everyone, including the nation. We expect untrained, poorly paid national service teachers to produce capable students. Many service personnel now work in offices as clerks and messengers, performing menial tasks – buying waakye, and kofi brokeman – for senior officers. Other unethical and immoral practices are too troubling to mention. This is not how we should treat our young people.

The National Service Scheme should be abolished. Its $100 million budget, I am suggesting, should be redirected towards entrepreneurial and industrial development. Through well-coordinated business competitions, we could allocate $1 million to young entrepreneurs every week. In a year, even with just half the scheme’s budget, we could create significant enterprises capable of employing thousands of graduates who need jobs.

Continuing to distribute this budget among all graduates demonstrates a misunderstanding of wealth creation. Entrepreneurs like Patrick Awuah and Samuel Atta-Mensah have built successful organizations from scratch. We should consciously identify and support such winners.

We have bright minds working in Edu-tech, media, Agri-processing, and community healthcare. They cannot scale their solutions with meagre savings and limited support from friends and family. Sending them on near-pointless assignments under the National Service Scheme does not help them or the broader youth population.

Cancelling the scheme would allow us to invest the money more effectively. We need to create a modern economy capable of employing our people on a revolutionary scale. The National Service Scheme, as it currently operates, is a waste. Cancelling it presents a significant opportunity we should seize.

Worryingly, young people have argued the importance of the scheme to me. They see it as a valuable stopgap between graduating and finding jobs, noting that many do not secure employment even three years after graduation. They mention the necessity of connections for job opportunities. While they often concede my points, they raise concerns about corruption thwarting well-intentioned plans. They doubt the current political class’s ability to implement such ideas without misappropriating funds.

If corruption is sapping the agency, hope, and drive of our youth, we are addressing it too mildly. It demands a decisive response from those in power. Corruption is preventing us from utilizing our resources effectively. The National Service Scheme merely distributes money without investing it where it can create winners. We must cancel it and explore better ways to use the funds.