Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta has said the Nation Builder’s Corps (NABCO) programme will end on September 1, 2022.
He said this while presenting the mid-year budget review in Parliament on Monday, July 25.
“Mr. Speaker, our iconic National Builder’s Corps (NaBCo) programme, which was initially to run for three years and extended for an additional year, will be completed by 1st September 2022. The Programme- which engaged 100,000 young graduates, has prepared thousands of them for the world of work. So far we have invested approximately GH¢2.2 billion,” he said.
“As they exit, the current cohort on the programme are encouraged to take advantage of the YouStart initiative and other existing programmes in our drive to Build an Entrepreneurial Nation,” he added.
The NaBCO initiative was launched by President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, on Tuesday, 1st May 2018.
Mr Akufo-Addo while launching the programme was confident that by the time NABCO trainees exited the scheme “the requisite work readiness skills and experience, often deemed a barrier to their employment as fresh graduates, would have been resolved.”
“NABCO will be the vehicle to deliver one hundred thousand (100,000) jobs in seven (7) prioritised areas, defined as the following modules: Educate Ghana; Heal Ghana; Feed Ghana; Revenue Ghana; Digitise Ghana; Enterprise Ghana; and Civic Ghana,” Mr Akufo-Addo said at the time.
Explaining the rationale for the establishment of the Corps, President Akufo-Addo noted that the grim story of youth unemployment had been a tragic part of the lives of Ghanaians for far too long in Ghana.
The situation he said was worsened by the ban placed on public sector employment by the International Monetary Fund programme the Mahama administration entered into which he inherited, at the time.
“I gave an indication that a new employment scheme will be launched to tackle the issue of the growing numbers of graduates exiting our tertiary institutions with no job placements in sight,” he said.
NABCO’s central focus, the President said, was to create employment avenues and opportunities for young people who hold diplomas or degrees from accredited tertiary institutions, adding that “NABCO will enhance the dignity and self-esteem of our graduates, and will also present them with the added benefit of efficiency and effectiveness in the delivery of some essential public services.”
By Laud Nartey|3news.com|Ghana