Mr Manamela said the exchange programme would strengthen the bond of unity between the two countries, broaden the frontier of knowledge and learn from each other for their mutual benefit.

Mr Manamela said this on Tuesday in Accra during an interaction with national service personnel deployed at Parliament House and with national service personnel in educational institutions at Dodowa.

A six-member delegation from South Africa on Monday paid a three-day study tour of the Ghana National Service Scheme (GNSS) to learn from the country’s experiences. He said Ghana was chosen because it was the first country in Africa to attain independence while South Africa was the last to achieve independence and it was therefore prudent to take inspiration from Ghana.

Mr Manamela said Ghana had a well-structured national service scheme spanning more than 30 years, adding that it was imperative to learn from them and re-structure their youth service for optimum results.

Mr Joseph Ekow Acquah, Deputy Director of Human Resource at Parliament House, said the house was made up of 20 departments which every year received service personnel who were deployed at various units such as the Research, Public Affairs, Transport and Committees, depending on their fields of study.

Dr Micheal Kpessa-Whyte, Executive Director of the GNSS, said the delegation had visited the scheme’s Papao farms at Haatso, Airport Police Station of the Motor Transport and Traffic Unit, which were under the scheme’s modules.

Mr Issah Abdullai Gombilla, a service personnel, said he worked with the Parliamentary Select Committee for Local Government and Rural Development and had learnt about processes of passing a bill into law. He said he had the opportunity to interact with the Members of Parliaments and learnt about parliamentary debates.