Don’t Let The Arrears Swallow The Gains; NABCO Trainees To Gov’t
The NABCO Trainees Association of Ghana has yet again reminded the government about the 9-month allowance arrears almost two months after payment of one out of the 10.
According to the president of the Association, Dennis Opoku Katakyie, it will be “extremely disastrous” if the government fails to release their locked-up allowances at this time of economic crisis.
“As the president of the NABCO Trainees Association, I am placing another call on the government to settle all the arrears so that we can have something to feed on in these trying times. Looking at the current economic situation, it will be extremely disastrous to fail to do the needful”.
Following a demonstration in August and a series of media engagements over the arrears since the beginning of this year, the government paid one out of the ten-month arrears on September 23.
The government has not given any indication as to when the rest will be paid.
Katakyie asserts that the gains of the initiative might be swallowed up if their concerns are not addressed.
“The programme has been beneficial but if care is not taken to redress the outstanding issues, the pains suffered by trainees will swallow the gains made by the initiative on the face of the current administration.”
According to him, failure to pay the arrears will create an “indelible scar” to “discredit the good works of the government so far as Nation Builders Corps (NABCO) is concerned”.
He, therefore, pleaded with the government for immediate intervention.
On August 18, 2022, the beneficiaries hit the streets of Accra and planned to stage another protest at the Jubilee House on September 20, however, a day to the protest, it was aborted.
The government still owes the beneficiaries of the programme despite exiting on September 1.
The Ministry of Finance said 100, 000 graduates enrolled in the programme since it began in 2017.
During the Mid-year budget review, the Finance Minister said the government had spent GH¢2.2 billion on the flagship programme.
Source: opemsuo.com/Hajara Fuseini
