The National Service Authority (NSA) scandal has erupted into one of Ghana’s most extensive corruption investigations in recent history, as Attorney General Dr. Dominic Ayine laid bare a complex web of financial crimes involving senior officials, staff, and vendors within the Authority.
Addressing the media on Friday, 13th July 2025, Dr. Ayine detailed how directors of the NSA systematically inflated budget figures submitted to Parliament at the start of each service year.
These figures, supposedly representing the number of prospective service personnel, were grossly exaggerated. Once Parliament approved the inflated budgets, directors would request permission from the Finance Minister to utilize excess funds.
According to Dr. Ayine, once authorization was granted, the directors transferred the funds into the NSA’s project account at the Agricultural Development Bank (ADB).
Under the guise of project implementation, the funds were then diverted into private pockets. But this was only one layer of the elaborate scheme.
“Another criminal scheme hatched and exploited by the directors and staff is the deployment of ghost names onto the NSA system. Once deployed, the directors would then request that both ghost names and genuine names be transmitted by the head of accounts to the Ghana Interbank Payment and Settlement Systems, that is, GhIPSS, for payment. These payments included payments to E-Zwich cardholders procured for the fictitious National Service personnel.”
Dr. Dominic Ayine
Investigators meticulously compared monthly data of verified personnel from the NSA’s central management system with payment records processed through GIPS between 2018 and 2024.
Their findings exposed that while 587,543 personnel should have been paid, 650,165 were actually disbursed allowances. The staggering difference of 63,672 ghost names underscores the depth of the fraudulent activities.

The ghost names came from multiple sources: individuals blocked during registration, personnel numbers existing only in payment records, NSA volunteers, certain management staff, and marketplace vendors.
According to the Attorney General, vendors submitted inflated lists of service personnel, allowing directors and staff to retrieve the excess payments directly from vendor accounts.
“For instance, we have conclusively established that after collecting these funds, some of the suspects, such as Gezi, Nyako, and Oteng, handed them over to suspect Osei Asibbey Antwi in cash, and on some occasions deposited the cash into his bank account.”
Dr. Dominic Ayine
Former NSA Director Nabbed
One of the most audacious elements of the scandal involved suspect Gifty Owari-Mensah, former acting director of the NSA.
She masterminded a loan scheme by fraudulently registering a company, Blocks of Life Consult, using other people’s personal information without their consent.
Gifty Owari-Mensah secured a GHC 38,698,218.69 loan from ADB at 23% interest, allegedly to supply home appliances to service personnel on a hire-purchase basis, with repayments managed through NSA deductions.

Despite these arrangements, Blocks of Life was not registered as an official vendor with the NSA. Over two service years, Gifty Owari-Mensah used 9,934 ghost names to siphon funds into multiple corporate accounts tied to her and her associates.
“Investigation further established that after ADB transferred the funds into the account of the company, she subsequently transferred the funds into four different company accounts, with the names of Amiacom, Scaffold, Ochi, and Aristo Logistics and Trading.”
Dr. Dominic Ayine
Notably, Gifty Owari-Mensah is a director at Amiacom, while Scaffold Company Ltd. belongs to suspect Abraham Gezi.
Between March 2023 and May 2024, Gifty transferred GHC 22,925,518.69 to Amiacom, GHC 1,000,000 to Scaffold, GHC 1,572,000 to Ochi, and GHC 5,200,000 to Aristo Logistics and Trading.
Key Officials Face Prosecution In Major Case
The investigation further uncovered that other NSA staff played critical roles in manipulating payroll data. Eric Nyarko (2017–April 2024) and Idrissu Ibn Abubakar (April 2024–December 2024) managed the transmission of payroll data to GhIPSS with approval from former NSA Director-Generals Mustafa Yusuf, Gifty Owari-Mensah, and Osei Asibbey Antwi.
Without their authorization, these fraudulent transactions could not have occurred.
Dr. Ayine revealed that suspect Osei Asibbey Antwi, who personally received over GHC 8.2 million through an EZwich account, was found in possession of the payment card during a search of his residence.
Similarly, massive payments were funneled to vendors: Haruna Maulaya of Alfaira Ventures (GHC 21.3 million), Rose Hamilton of Marine Ventures (GHC 50.7 million), Isaac Asamani of Option Buy Ventures (GHC 11.4 million), and many others.

Overall, payments totaling GHC 167.5 million were made into the account of a savings and loan entity between 2019 and 2024, with additional substantial sums directed to multiple vendors and accomplices.
Despite receiving significant funds, none of the vendors could provide evidence that these payments were in exchange for actual goods or services provided to National Service personnel. “Having concluded our investigations, we will be filing charges against 12 suspects who worked as directors and staff of the NSA.”
The suspects include Mustafa Yousif (former executive director), Osei Asibbey Antwi (former director general), Gifty Owari-Mensah (former deputy executive director), Abraham Bismarck Gezi (former internal auditor), and several others, including vendors and business owners implicated in the elaborate network.
Additional charges to be filed include stealing, conspiracy to steal, willfully causing financial loss to the state, using public office for private profit, obtaining public property by false statements, and multiple counts of money laundering.
Dr. Ayine concluded by announcing that certain vendors had entered into non-prosecution agreements and would serve as key witnesses for the prosecution: “We have decided in the office, together with the investigators, that some marketplace vendors and directors who cooperated will assist our case as prosecution witnesses.”
A comprehensive asset investigation is also underway to recover misappropriated funds and property.
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