The Acting Director of the National Service Authority, Ruth Dela Seddoh, has acknowledged persistent challenges affecting the smooth registration and posting of national service personnel, attributing many of the difficulties to delays from tertiary institutions, non-compliance by service personnel and institutional bottlenecks.
She made this known at a press briefing on Monday, December 15, 2025.
According to her, even after the Authority completes its internal processes, some academic institutions fail to promptly update their records following gazetting, creating significant delays in the release of primary graduate lists required for deployment.
“From some academic institutions, even after our personnel complete the process, delays in updating their records after gazetting remain a major concern,” she said.
“We also continue to face significant delays in receiving the primary graduate list.”
Dela Seddoh explained that beyond genuine technical issues where graduates are unable to register or are released late from their initial postings, investigations have revealed behavioural and systemic factors contributing to registration challenges.
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“Analysis indicates that beyond the genuine technical implementation issues, there were also factors including preferences for special postings to particular institutions, preferably within the public sector,” she stated.
She noted that many graduates aligned with private sector placements choose to delay reporting, holding out for public sector roles despite limited vacancies.
“This has created auto-congestion because public sector vacancies are limited and competitively allocated,” she said.
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Another major challenge, she disclosed, is the failure of some service personnel to complete mandatory regional validation after reporting to their stations.
“Some personnel reported to their stations but failed to complete the mandatory regional validation. Doing this means that next year, in our system, you have not done institutional validation,” she explained.
She also appealed to graduates to accept their postings and serve where assigned, warning that refusal to report in hopes of securing preferred locations undermines the national service scheme.
“National service, in its very essence, is about deploying your skills to institutional needs,” she said.
“When individuals choose not to report to their assigned posts hoping to secure a change, it creates confusion and systemic strain.”
JKB/AM
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