As the Nation Builder’s Corps (NaBCo) programme ends today without a clear exit plan to provide jobs for the thousands of graduates who participated in the scheme, all the 97 NaBCo beneficiaries in the North Tongu constituency have secured jobs through a special initiative of their Member of Parliament.
Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, MP for North Tongu, explains that the initiative, which is to prevent the trainees from becoming jobless, said all the 97 beneficiaries have been provided jobs in a Chinese manufacturing firm in the area.
The opposition MP, announcing the achievement in a post on Facebook today, said he had “successfully negotiated with the Chinese management of Sinostone Bioethanol Manufacturing Ltd (SBML) located in North Tongu, to immediately employ all 97 NaBCo beneficiaries” from the area.
SBML engages in the manufacture of bioethanol from cassava for sale on the Ghanaian market and export to the West African sub-region.
Established on July 16, 2019, the company aims to produce approximately 15,000 tons of high-standard quality industrial ethanol per year and be the major supplier to the beverage, pharmaceutical, and other industries in the West African sub-region.
In December last year, Mr. Okudzeto Ablakwa offered financial support to NABCo and National Service personnel in the constituency after the government delayed in paying their allowances.
The NABCo programme, which engaged some 100,000 graduates as part of the government’s job creation effort, officially ends today, September 1, 2022, after four years of implementation that was fraught with challenges, including long delays in the payment of monthly allowances to trainees.
Although a portion of the beneficiaries is said to have been absorbed by their respective institutions, the majority of them appear to be exiting the GH¢2.2 billion programme, jobless.
The government had indicated, during the presentation of the 2022 budget that a YouStart programme and a Digital Inclusion programme would gradually absorb the remaining NABCO trainees, but letters sent to the beneficiaries to officially inform them of the closure of the programme, did not offer any exit plan.
The trainees are also leaving the programme with months of unpaid allowances.
