President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo will honour his promise of paying personnel of the Nation Builders Corps (NABCO) and also ensure that they are permanently employed, a member of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) communications team, Ama Daaku, has disclosed.
Her comment comes after some personnel of the NABCO initiative are hitting the streets of Accra today, Thursday February 17, following the failure of the government to pay them.
They are owed four months salary arrears but according to them, the government has failed to to pay them, hence the protest.
Speaking on the New Day show on TV3 Thursday February 17 with host Johnnie Hughes, Madam Ama Daaku said “President Akufo-Addo is a promise-keeper, the NABCO personnel will be paid” and enrolled permanently.
NABCO was launched by President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, on Tuesday, 1st May, 2018.
Mr Akufo-Addo while launching the programme was confident that by the time NABCO trainees exited scheme “the requisite work readiness skills and experience, often deemed a barrier to their employment as fresh graduates, would have been resolved.”
According to President Akufo-Addo, “NABCO will be the vehicle to deliver one hundred thousand (100,000) jobs in seven (7) prioritised areas, defined as the following modules: Educate Ghana; Heal Ghana; Feed Ghana; Revenue Ghana; Digitise Ghana; Enterprise Ghana; and Civic Ghana.”
Explaining the rationale for the establishment of the Corps, President Akufo-Addo noted that the grim story of youth unemployment had been a tragic part of the lives of Ghanaians for far too long in Ghana.
The situation he said was worsened by the ban placed on public sector employment by the International Monetary Fund at the time.
“I gave an indication that a new employment scheme will be launched to tackle the issue of the growing numbers of graduates exiting our tertiary institutions with no job placements in sight,” he said.
NABCO’s central focus, the President said, was create employment avenues and opportunities for young people who hold diplomas or degrees from accredited tertiary institutions, adding that “NABCO will enhance the dignity and self-esteem of our graduates, and will also present them with the added benefit of efficiency and effectiveness in the delivery of some essential public services.”