NABCO trainees seek God’s face for a change of heart of leaders over unpaid allowance
The Nation Builders Corps Trainees Association of Ghana (NABTAG) are seeking God’s intervention over their unpaid allowance.
After exhausting all possible means of resolution, the association has declared a one-day fasting and prayer session on Wednesday, November 9, for God’s intervention on the matter.
“Because of the suffering, NABCo trainees are to fast and pray on Wednesday, November 9, 2022, for God to touch the heart of our leaders to hear our cry and pay us. NABCO trainees sacrificed their lives for Ghana for 46 tough months (3 years, 10 months).
“Unfortunately for us, after 46 months of sacrifice, we were just told to go home sadly. By that time, the government owed us 10 months’ stipends. We pleaded for a long time, but the government insulted us with a one-month stipend. It is only God who knows the hardship these innocent trainees went through for these 46 months and still going through.
“Therefore, we are turning to God for his intervention by fasting and praying on Wednesday for God to change the heart of these leaders towards us in this difficult time for them to pay what is due us,” the leadership of the group said in a statement.
The association also made reference to the book of Psalm 61:1, which states that “Hear my cry, O God; listen to my prayer”, and Proverbs 21:1, which states that the King’s heart is in the hand of the Lord; he directs it like a watercourse wherever he pleases”.
“We implore every trainee to be part of this one-day fasting and prayers. We believe by the end of this fasting and prayers, God will pave the way to where there seems to be no way,” the statement said.
About NABCo
The Nation Builders Corps (NABCO) programme is a government initiative implemented to address the growing phenomenon of graduate unemployment.
The objectives of the programme were as follows:
• Provide temporary employment to unemployed graduates
• Improve skills and employability for the transition from program to permanent employment
• Improve public service delivery
• Improve government revenue mobilization
• To provide needed infrastructure to improve access to basic public services
Under the programme, graduates were expected to be trained, equipped with the necessary work tools, and deployed around the country to engage in the following programmes:
• Educate Ghana
• Heal Ghana
• Feed Ghana
• Revenue Ghana
• Digitize Ghana
• Civic Ghana
• Enterprise Ghana
It was initially supposed to run for three years, ending in October 2021 but was extended for an additional year.
It will be recalled that during the 2022 budget statement, the government had indicated that the YouStart programme and a Digital inclusion program would gradually absorb the remaining NABCo trainees.
Finance Minister Ken Ofori Atta, who presented the budget in Parliament, explained that the programme would be cancelled and replaced with the YouStart initiative, an entrepreneurial initiative for employment.
“As they exit, the current cohort on the programme is encouraged to take advantage of the YouStart initiative and other existing programmes in our drive to build an entrepreneurial nation.
The government’s policy is to support dynamic young entrepreneurs’ in accessing training and funding to build their businesses and become a significant pool of job providers for their fellow young people,” he noted.
So far, the government has invested approximately GH¢2.2 billion into NABCO.