The Management of the National Service Scheme (NSS) has asked potential registrants for the 2017/2018 national service not to produce Health Insurance cards for identification purposes because they “would NOT be accepted.”

Besides the provision of students’ I/D cards, the Service says it requires registrants to produce any one of the national identity cards, namely a valid voter I.D., passport or drivers’ license.

The 2017/2018 National Service registration which was originally scheduled to start from Monday, July 17 will now start from Monday, July 24, 2017.

A statement issued by the Ag. Executive Director, Ussif Mustapha, said the postponement is to afford ample time to all stakeholders in the registration process to adequately prepare for the registration.

“All prospective national service personnel and the general public are to note that the new period of registration would be from Monday, 24th July, 2017 to Thursday, 24th August, 2017 at all the NSS registration centres across the country,” the statement said.

The National Health Insurance Scheme identification cards were accepted as sufficient national identification document until May 5, 2016 when the Supreme Court outlawed them as proper national I/Ds and later ordered the Electoral Commission to delete from the national electoral register, names of voters who submitted NHIS cards for their registration.

The court’s decisions followed an application by Abu Ramadan, a former National Youth Organiser of the People’s National Convention and one Evans Nimako.