“Help us and we will shoulder the system” – Okoe-Boye to nursing trainees
In a moment, nursing trainees are crying over their unpaid allowances, the minister-designate for Health, Dr. Bernard Okoe-Boye, has urged them to support the Akufo-Addo’s administration in its efforts, to disburse their allowances.
During a presentation at the Lekma Hospital and the University of Ghana Medical Centre in Accra on Monday, May 20, 2024, Dr Okoe-Boye acknowledged that some allowances are still outstanding, but assured the nurses that the government is making all the necessary efforts to settle these arrears.
“There are thousands of nurses who have had allowances paid to them by this government.
“But it is also true that there are others whose payments are in arrears. We have decided to work hard to sustain and to pay these arrears. You have to choose between the one who says I will pay you, pays you and sometimes owes you. And the other one who says that me I can’t pay these things at all. And so if you have had the other government led by John Mahama for the past eight years it will be zero for all nurses in Ghana.
“But as we speak hundreds of thousands of nurses have had support from the Akufo-Addo government and it is true that there are hundreds of thousands who are calling for theirs to come”.
“We will work hard to make sure that everybody receives what is due them. This is the kind of government to support. The one who says I will shoulder this trouble. I will shoulder this burden. I will work hard to sustain it,’ he noted.
He contrasted this with the previous government, which, he allegedly said, found the payment of trainee allowances as a burden.
“It is better than the one who says this is too much load for me I can’t carry. The choice is yours, help us and we will shoulder the system”.
Meanwhile, Vice President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia has announced that the Ministry of Finance has approved GH¢177million to clear all nursing trainee allowance arrears.
The nursing trainee allowance, which has been in arrears for months and has led to a series of protests by the health workers, was reintroduced by the Akufo-Addo administration after it was abolished in 2014.
Former President John Mahama, under the umbrella of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), scrapped the teacher and nursing trainee allowances, justifying that it was necessary to use the money to invest in education infrastructure.
Following the government’s reintroduction of the nursing trainee allowance, the Ghana Nurse-Midwife Trainees’ Association (GNMTA) have been mounting intense pressure on the government to settle their arrears.