The Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta, has announced that the Nation Builders Corps (NaBCo) will be cancelled by 1 September 2022.
Presenting the 2022 mid-year budget in parliament on Monday, 25 July 2022, the minister said the “Nation Builders Corps (NaBCo) programme, which was initially to run for three years and extended for an additional year, will be completed by 1 September 2022”.
The Nation Builders Corps (NaBCo) is a government initiative aimed at addressing graduate unemployment in Ghana. President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo launched the programme on 1 May 2018.
According to the finance minister, NaBCo has engaged 100,000 young graduates since its inception and prepared them for the job market.
“So far, we have invested approximately GH¢2.2 billion,” he said
He added 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 minister added.
“The government’s policy is to support dynamic young entrepreneurs access to training and funds to build their businesses and become a significant pool of job providers for their fellow young people. 26. We, however, recognise that our post-COVID economic recovery has been uneven, and risks remain high. According to the IMF, the global outlook is grim and has darkened significantly, global uncertainty is exceptionally high, and 2023 is even more uncertain. However, in the 2022 Budget, we committed ourselves to chart a course toward growth and fiscal sustainability, and this Mid-Year Fiscal Policy Review reasserts that commitment.” he noted.
Background
The NaBCo initiative is focused on solving public service delivery in health, education, agriculture, technology, and governance and driving revenue mobilisation and collection.
The objectives of the programme are; to provide temporary employment to unemployed graduates, improve skills and employability for the transition from programme to permanent jobs, and improve public service delivery, among other things.
Over the past years, the programme has faced issues relating to remuneration for trainees.
On 17 February 2022, some disgruntled personnel of NABCO hit the streets of Accra over the non-payment of monthly stipends owed to them.
The protestors claimed the government had not paid them for over six months, and promises of upgrading their contract to permanent status were yet to be fulfilled.
“We are really going through emotional trauma. Trainees are complaining bitterly, asking what is the way forward. We have done all we could for government to hear our plea. Government should pay us. We have worked for nine months,” National Secretary of the Coalition of NABCO Trainees, Frank Quansah, said.