A group of beneficiaries of the Nation Builders Corps (NABCO) programme have threatened to picket at the Ministry of Finance in Accra on September 25, 2023, over their unpaid allowance.
The trainees claim that they have not received their allowance since last year and are demanding the government to pay them their arrears and provide them with permanent jobs.
The NABCO programme was launched by President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo in 2018 to provide temporary employment and skills training to 100,000 unemployed graduates in various sectors of the economy. The trainees are supposed to receive a monthly allowance of GHC699.25 for a period of three years.
However, some of the trainees have complained of irregular and delayed payment of their allowance, which they say has made life unbearable for them. This was revealed to a Freelance Journalist, Mensah Maxwell by an undisclosed source from the group. They have also accused the government of abandoning them and failing to honour its pledge to absorb them into permanent positions after the completion of their contract.
In February 2022, some of the trainees staged a demonstration in Accra to express their grievances and called on the President to intervene. They also disputed the government’s claim that about 39,000 trainees have secured permanent employment, describing it as “a figment of imagination”.
The said source stated that they have exhausted all avenues to dialogue with the authorities and have no option but to resort to picketing. He said that they will converge at the Ministry of Finance on September 25, 2023, at 8:00 am and will not leave until their demands are met.
“The delay is too much for us; we are going with anger,” the source stated and continued:
“We are tired of being treated as second-class citizens. We have worked hard for this country and we deserve better. We are not asking for too much. We just want our arrears paid and our permanent jobs secured. Is that too much to ask?” he said.
In the group’s outlet, flown on Wednesday 21, the group also appealed to other NABCO trainees across the country to join them in their action and urged the public to support their cause.
The Ministry of Finance has not yet responded to the group’s announcement. The Ministry is responsible for ensuring macroeconomic stability and promoting sustainable economic growth and development in Ghana. It is located on 28th February Road, Finance Drive, Accra.
