The Western Regional Director of the National Service Scheme (NSS), Mr. Okatakyie Amankwa Afrifa has intimated that creating awareness on responsible mining can be achieved at the local levels.
He indicated that there was the need to create awareness on responsible mining to help eradicate the lingering menace of illegal mining in the region and the country as a whole.
Mr. Afrifa made this statement at the commencement of the National Service Personnel Association (NASPA) Week celebration in Takoradi on the theme, ‘Sustainable Mining for National Development, An All in All Call’.
According to him, the theme and the venue for the national launch was chosen to put a spotlight on the increase in illegal mining in the country and the need to find the best way of mining to protect the environment and create more opportunities.
Based on this, the NSS Director also as part of the launch, called on the Minerals Commission to establish offices in the various District Assemblies for surveillance and supervisory purposes in the mining industry.
COVID affected NSS postings
Addressing the gathering, he posited that the impact of COVID-19 has taken a toll on the Services’ operations. He explained that the virus have affected many organization which had to lay off or cut down salaries of staff to retain them.
This, he said, resulted in the number of rejections of National Service Personnel by some companies, which resulted in double work for management who were forced to restart the posting processes all over again.
“Many companies reduced their intake which led to loads of rejections. This circumstance is worrying. Sometimes, you can get the posting but the company might reject your posting and you have to do reposting.”
Mr. Amankwa Afrifa
He also noted that, the National Service Personnel as a result mostly become disappointed and waste their money in an attempt to get posted to destinations of their choice through a middle man.
Desist from middlemen for posting
Mr. Afrifa then cautioned all applicants of the Scheme to desist from paying people to facilitate their postings, since postings were solely done based on request of organizations.
He explained that although request and requirement of organizations influenced posting, applicants try to manipulate the NSS system to get them posted to certain destinations of choice, who ultimately get rejected in most case
The Western Region NSS Director further urged the incoming personnel to choose an organization that correlates with their areas of studies to prevent mismatch resulting in ultimate rejection and inconvenience.
“We have had experiences where People come to the office to cry just because an organization had rejected them. Sometimes Personnel will share stories that showed they had offered money to someone else to facilitate their posting.
“The worrying aspect is, you will find a theatre student who is doing everything possible to work with a mining company because many feel they could get the chance to be either employed or paid well. This is a challenge for the scheme and everyone has to be careful. People must choose organizations that match their expertise.”
Mr. Amankwa Afrifa
