The Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta, has revealed that the Nation Builders Corps (NABCo) programme, one of the government’s flagship programs is scheduled to officially end by September 1st, 2022.
NaBCo was introduced by the Akufo-Addo-led administration as part of a job creation plan. The pr
ogramme was officially launched by President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo on May 1, 2018.
Although this programme was aimed at addressing graduate unemployment in Ghana, It was temporal employment meant to equip graduates, especially new graduates with the necessary knowledge and skills, and adequate experience to compete favourably for the job market.
During the presentation of the 2022 mid-year national budget in parliament, Ken Offori ind
icated that the NABCo programme, which was initially to run for three years, and extended for an additional year has successfully engaged and prepared about 100,000 graduates for the world of work. This current cohort was trained in seven sectors of the economy including; health, education, local governance, agriculture, digitization, finance, and entrepreneurship.
With the current cohort exiting the program come September, Ken Ofori-Atta, therefore, urged them to take advantage of the YouStart initiative programme and other programmes made available by the current government in their drive to build an entrepreneurial nation.
The YouStart programme according to the Ministry of finance is a vehicle through which Government intends to provide funding and technical support to the youth (18-40 years) and youth-led businesses to assist them start, build and grow their own businesses.
It is very necessary to note: the President, Nana Akufo Addo has already reiterated during his tour to the Bono Region that NABCo trainees under the 3 year contract who are bringing their service to an end in October are in transition to pave way for new entrants.
The Finance Minister continued by saying: “The YouthStart programme will be a fundamental intervention to advancing an entrepreneurial nation to create jobs. The government’s policy is to support dynamic young entrepreneurs access training and funds to build their businesses and become a significant pool of job providers for their fellow young people.”
Meanwhile, the programme, during the early period of its execution, encountered major challenges. Currently, a number of the corps complained about the non-payment of allowances by the government for about nine months now, although the government claims to have invested approximately GH¢2.2 billion into the running of the programme. This raised doubts in some Ghanaians regarding the validity of the figures presented by the government at parliament.
