The Nation Builders Corps (NABCo) trainees have received one out of the 10 months’ arrears owed by the government, Dennis Opoku Katakyie, President of the NABCo Trainees Association of Ghana (NABTAG), has revealed.
“NABCo trainees are at this moment informed that stipends payment for November 2021, as one month’s settlement of the ten months arrears, has been processed. In actuality, nine months, counting from December 2021 to August 2022, are still outstanding,” the NABTAG President said in a statement.
Although one month’s payment represents a tiny fraction of the total amount owed to them, the NABCo trainees expressed gratitude to the government for acting to improve their situation.
They appealed to the government, particularly the Ministry of Finance, to “affix trainees’ outstanding arrears into its subsequent allocations to enable the Secretariat to effect payment for the remaining months.”
NABTAG warned that it would take every practical measure to guarantee that trainees get their full stipends for the remaining months.
“If, after a considerable period of time, arrears for the remaining months are not fully paid, the leadership will recruit another draconian measure to forcibly ensure that we are paid. We have done it before, so we can do it again.”
The Nation Builders Corps (NABCO) is a government flagship programme introduced by President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo under his leadership to ease unemployment in the country.
It was subsequently inaugurated in 2018 with some one hundred thousand trainees getting job opportunities in both public and private sectors under seven modules; namely, Civic Ghana, Enterprise Ghana, Revenue Ghana, Heal Ghana, Educate Ghana, Feed Ghana and Digitise Ghana.
In its earlier stage, there were some hullabaloos regarding its creation and sustainability.
Most people were of the view that the government could not run the programme successfully, while others also had faith in the government.
Last year the programme ended as per the contract letter given to these trainees.
In 2019, there were some challenges with the NABCO payment system, as trainees had their allowances delayed, but 2020 came with hope as officials addressed the problems.
Trainees were receiving their monthly allowance until November 2021.
Since then, trainees have hit the streets of Accra many times to demand the monthly stipends owed to them.