Ghanaian singer Dennis Nana Dwamena, popularly known as KiDi, has revealed that his National Service experience took an unexpected turn when an institution refused to accept him on his very first day.

KiDi said he had been assigned to the Presbyterian Church of Ghana headquarters in Osu after completing his university education in 2016. However, instead of beginning his mandatory service, he was taken to the office of his prospective boss, who allegedly rejected him without providing a clear reason.

“I was in school. I actually finished school in 2016. So I was signed, and I finished. The most difficult part about that was that even when I was done, I had to do one year of National Service at the National Service Headquarters at Airport. And the sad thing about that is that it wasn’t my first placement. They placed me at the Presbyterian headquarters, I think in Osu. I went there to do my national service, and they took me to the boss’s office. He looked me up and down and said, ‘You can’t work here,’” he said.

The rejection forced the ‘Touch It’ hitmaker to request a new posting, eventually landing at the National Service Headquarters at the Airport area.

At the time, KiDi was already signed to Lynx Entertainment, the record label founded by Richard Mensah, popularly known as Richie Mensah. He said combining the demands of a growing music career with compulsory national service became another challenge.

“I left. I went for a repost, and they put me at the National Service Headquarters, which was another hurdle. You’re expecting that when you wake up in the morning, it’s studio recording, preparing for shows, or getting ready for interviews. Instead, I’m at work doing national service. And they were very confused, like, ‘Why are you doing national service?’ I’m like, ‘I have to do it.’ Because at home, there’s a requirement. I had to finish it,” he added.

KiDi’s account offers a glimpse into the less glamorous side of his early career, when he had to fulfil Ghana’s mandatory National Service requirement while simultaneously trying to establish himself as a professional musician.

Despite the inconvenience, he completed the service and continued pursuing music, eventually becoming one of Ghana’s prominent contemporary Afrobeats and highlife voices.

Watch the interview here:

“Young man, you cannot work here.”@KiDiMusic recounts his first National Service posting, his reposting to the NSS Headquarters, and how he balanced it all with his emerging career as a newly signed artiste.

Watch full interview here https://t.co/nAk7iI9RCg… pic.twitter.com/w8LwGzIZG9

— Kafui Dey (@KafuiDey) August 24, 2026

Source: Yvonne Nyarko Agyemang