This, according to Vice President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, is part of plans put in place by the Akufo-Addo administration to address the unemployment situation in the country.

[contextly_sidebar id=”k3WeYDU0gjyduk90w3XSmbInmKis2qHL”]Speaking at the launch of the restoration of teacher trainee allowances at the Accra College of Education, Dr Bawumia noted that graduates who have spent several years at home without any jobs, will be absorbed into the programme.

“We did promise that we will set up a Nation Builders Corps and Nana Addo has said that we want to move this Graduate unemployment to deal with it and one of the ways we are going to deal with it is to set up the Nation Builders Corps which will provide modules teaching for nursing, revenue collection, agriculture, governance,” he said.

“The Nation Builders Corps will hire 100,000 graduates, some of whom have been sitting at home for three, four years after coming out of school and have not been able to find a job. By the grace of God, next month, we are hoping that if the President’s schedule permits by April 30 we will launch the Nation Builders Corps”

The Nations Builders Corps was announced as a government initiative in the 2018 budget to provide 100,000 jobs to graduates at a cost of GHc 600 million.

The focus of the initiative is to improve public service delivery in health, education, agriculture, sanitation and also drive revenue mobilization and collection.

462 jobs per district

The NBC is expected to provide every one of Ghana’s 216 districts with jobs for 462 graduates, the Minister said.

The programme, which will be managed by the office of the President, will focus on alleviating shortfalls in public service delivery.

NBC has a number of subsets which are connected to other major government targets and initiatives.

It will have a “Clean Ghana” Programme for sanitation, a “Heal Ghana” module for health,  “Revenue Ghana” programme for tax collection, a “Teach Ghana” module for education and a “Feed Ghana” module for agriculture.

The NBC is also envisioned to alleviate Ghana’s graduate unemployment problems

They have cited a duplication of roles with the already existing Youth Employment Programme.

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By: Marian Ansah/citifmonline.com/Ghana

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He admits it is a national security issue, but assured that his government is working towards creating an enabling environment that will allow the private sector to thrive in order to drive the job creation agenda.

[contextly_sidebar id=”Q6IjqSMu0FeHi4BFE8YeJjAGAFISj4Hp”]Speaking at the 69th Annual New Year School and Conference at the Great Hall of the University of Ghana, Dr. Bawumia admitted the current unemployment levels were a “national security issue”, but insisted that the government was committed to ensuring that the problem is addressed.

“High unemployment is the key and most pressing issue of our time. It is a national security issue because the devil finds work for idle hands. Ultimately the high level of unemployment is a reflection of the underlined weaknesses in our economy. This is why the President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has placed job creation as the number one priority of government,” he said.

The event was under the theme “Job creation for Accelerated  National Development: The role of the private sector,” which was a major point for the New Patriotic Party (NPP) well before they assumed office.

The Vice President emphasized that it is important for the private sector to play a leading role in the creation of jobs with government only serving as a facilitator,

“It goes without saying that government’s role is to put in place an enabling environment for the private sector to drive job creation. Fundamentally, however, you have to build an engine, and an engine has many parts but you have to build an engine that is going to drive job creation,” he said.

‘100, 000 jobs in 2018’

Dr. Bawumia reiterated government’s plans to create jobs for 100, 000 unemployed graduates in 2018 through the Nation Builders Corps initiative.

The programme was announced as a government initiative in the 2018 budget to provide the jobs at a cost of GHc 600 million.

The focus of the initiative is to improve public service delivery in health, education, agriculture, sanitation and also drive revenue mobilization and collection.

The programme has been scrutinized by the Minority in Parliament, and  Policy think tank, Imani Africa, who have cited a duplication of roles with the already existing Youth Employment Programme.

However, the Vice President believes that the initiative is needed to create jobs for graduates in various sectors of the economy.

“Employment is a major problem. There are a lot of vacancies [for unemployed graduates] that we have whether it’s teaching or nursing,” he said.

‘Foundation laid for jobs’

President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo said in December that the government has put structures in place to ensure that the country’s unemployment challenges are addressed.

According to Nana Addo, despite inheriting an economy in dire straits, the New Patriotic Party (NPP) administration has worked assiduously towards ensuring that job opportunities are created for Ghanaians.

“We’ve had important challenges; Invincible and Delta Forces and the tensions at the grassroots of the party over jobs. I appreciate very much the anxiety over jobs. What I’m saying is that, the foundation has been laid for jobs. It has not been easy because we inherited a bankrupt economy, but because of the ingenuity of the people I’m working with, we’ve been able to lay a good foundation,” the President said.

“Let us remain united and confident, we are on the right path and soon it will be obvious to everybody. Our race is not a sprint, it is a cross-country, it is a marathon race and we are going to win at the end, not just at the beginning.”

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By: Edwin Kwakofi/citifmonline.com/Ghana

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They believe the move should also reduce the overdependence on imports with an increased production level.

The Economists have however suggested some key steps to be taken for government to achieve this aim by the end of the year.

According to the Finance Minister Ken Ofori Atta, at least 100,000 jobs are expected to be created from the Nation Builders’ Corps which is part of the numerous initiatives to be rolled out under the Akufo-Addo Programme for Economic Transformation (AAPET).

In addition, the NPP government is aiming at deepening the growth of Ghana’s private sector to be able to absorb the majority of the unemployed.

Although Economist Adu Owusu Sarkodie couldn’t agree more, he has advocated proper statistics to assess the efficiency of these initiatives.

“I think that once we have a full knowledge about this and appreciate what is going on, the government should come out and tell us how many Ghanaians are unemployed, how many are graduates or have SHS certificate, how many unemployed men or women there are or those below the age of 35 among others, so that we can really appreciate your efforts,” he stated.

But citing the allocation of significant portions of tax revenue to the resettling of accumulated debts and salary payment, Economist Professor Godfred Bokpin says it will be tough for the government in meeting the target in the interim.

“The best way to judge government’s good intention is to look at the allocation function. Where they are putting their money is what tells you what they value most. So if you look at the tax revenue, it is just going into two line items; debt servicing and wages and salaries, there’s little left to do these many other things so that is the challenge that we have.”

The Industrial and Commercial Workers Union (ICU) will be least satisfied unless the government convinces it that the jobs will provide meaningful and sustainable livelihoods to beneficiaries.

Arguing the Union’s position, the General Secretary Solomon Kotei maintained that government comes clear on the types of employment creation.

“What types of jobs because we in labour believe in decent jobs; jobs that give you the employee a good future. But these things are not too clear from the government as of now. it’s only been statements that they are going to be creating jobs but which areas these are going to come from, we are yet to know.”

It is estimated that creating jobs will mean that Ghana should be reducing the burden where majority of graduates will spend at least ten years before securing meaningful jobs.

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By: Pius Amihere Eduku/citibusinessnews.com/Ghana

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He said the country required sustainable measures to help provide jobs for the youth to avoid serious problems in the future.

Mr. Ofori-Atta, who was speaking at the PwC 2018 budget forum, said the programme would be planned to ensure that it did not negatively affect the public sector wage bill.

The forum is an annual initiative by the PwC to help break down government policies as announced in the budget to partners and stakeholders of the audit and accounting firm.

Mr. Ofori-Atta said the graduates would be engaged in critical areas such as; the collection of taxes, enforcement of sanitation rules and delivery of health and education services in the various district, municipal and metropolitan assemblies.

Mr. Ofori-Atta said the NBC was a well-thought-out programme meant to address the national security risk posed by growing graduate unemployment.

Meanwhile, the Minister said the Ghana Infrastructure Investment Fund would be reviewed to allow for additional resources to be committed to the fund.

He said the move is to restructure the Fund to allow for mobilization of foreign and private capital for critical infrastructure development.

“We are looking at the GIF law so that we move the fund to about US$1 billion or even US$2 billion to be a key player in our infrastructure drive,” he stated.

The GIIF was established in 2014, in pursuant to the GIF Act, Act 877 of 2014, with the mandate to provide financial resources to manage, coordinate and invest in a diversified portfolio of infrastructure projects in the country for national development.

Dr. Eric Osei-Asibey, a lecturer at the Economics Department of the University of Ghana, Legon, commended the government for fiscal consolidation and a stable economy, but wondered if the growth would be sustainable over the medium to long-term.

 On lending rates, Dr. Eric Osei Asibey, urged the government to put in place measures that would ensure a rapid decline of lending rates in the country, insisting that the move would be a major first step to ensure private sector drive inclusive and sustainable growth.

However, he said there was the need for government to adopt measures to mobilize enough domestic revenue to avoid a cut in expenditure to ensure fiscal consolidation.

“If you want to ensure fiscal consolidation, you look at either increasing your revenue generation or cutting expenditure or a combination of the two, but we have so far achieved fiscal consolidation largely because we cut expenditure and that is good, but to what extent can we continue to do that,” he explained.

Mr. Abeku Gyan-Quansah, Associate Director, PwC Ghana, said it was time stakeholders developed a home grown dispute resolution mechanism to deal with business disputes between partners.

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Source: GNA

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According to the think tank, although the mode of financing the programme has not yet been put out, the GHc600 million set aside to pay wages of graduates who would be captured under the NBC is too much and a “waste of money.”

Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta, whilst presenting the 2018 budget statement in Parliament last Wednesday, announced the policy, projecting that the initiative will give jobs to 100,000 graduates by the close of 2018.

[contextly_sidebar id=”P8GgtHk85iB9MjuodFoI4ZBoCxUBbKsd”]But President of IMANI Ghana, Franklin Cudjoe, in an interview on the Citi Breakfast Show on Tuesday, said the amount can be pumped into the National Entrepreneurship and Innovation Plan (NIEP) or better still the agricultural sector.

“We are yet to see the details of the financing arrangement, but what we’ve seen so far unfortunately may be going to a lot of sectors that have been in existence long ago. It means that if people are going to employed to be taking care of our healthcare institutions, I don’t know if they will be doing extensive services in education because that has also been mentioned and revenue generation which have all not been clearly defined. It appears to us that these are not necessarily different from what the national service really does.”

“So in a way, we were thinking that to spend a hefty sum of almost GHc600 million to create jobs that are transient jobs basically, and not necessarily adding to the productive capabilities of the country, looks as if it is a waste of money,” Mr. Cudjoe added.

IMANI’s President also explained that, his team believes the NBC budgetary allocation could have been used to support the NEIP, saying “we think that is about the most truly entrepreneurial entity, I mean let’s do something and get money and get out of the way.”

“We would have thought that the GHc60 million that went to NEIP could have seen some complementarity with this nation builders corps. Truly if it were to be entrepreneurial, it also means it has to be competitive. Unfortunately, these funds that will be used as payment for graduates who will be employed in these sectors are not going to be competitively sought for, and we feel that is not truly entrepreneurial,” he added.

Policy incoherence

IMANI Ghana had in its assessment of the 2018 budget statement described the NBC as a “reflection of policy incoherence, and a myopic approach to solving the graduate unemployment challenge.”

“The focus of the 2018 budget is to revamp agriculture for food sustainability and feeding the numerous factories to be established under the 1-district-1-factory policy.  Interestingly, the amount allocated to the Ministry of Agriculture, which is annually inadequate, was cut by 21 percent. The decrease is likely to affect productivity outcomes in the sector. However, the elephant in the room is the ageing cocoa and food crop farmers and the low interest of the youth to venture into agriculture. One would have thought a policy to engage graduates across the country would centre on finding innovative solutions to encourage graduates into agriculture,” the think tank said in its report.

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By: Godwin Akweiteh Allotey/citifmonline.com/Ghana
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In the 2018 Budget address, under the theme, “From Stabilization to Work; Putting Ghana to Work Again”, the Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta, said 100,000 tertiary graduates will be employed under the NBC in 2018.

Every one of Ghana’s 216 districts should be able to provide jobs for 462 graduates, the Minister said.

The NBC, which will be based in the office of the President, will focus on alleviating shortfalls in public service delivery.

Graduate unemployment is seen to be at critical levels in Ghana with data from the Institute of Statistics, Social and Economic Research (ISSER) of the University of Ghana, noting that only 10 percent of graduates find jobs after their first year of completing school.

ISSER’s research also indicates that, it may take up to 10 years for a large number of graduates to secure employment due to varied challenges.

The government believes the NBC programme will see a turn for the better as Mr. Ofori Atta said this step “will be a major government initiative to address livelihood empowerment and graduate unemployment to solve economic and social problems.”

“The focus of the initiative will be solving public service delivery in health, education, agriculture, sanitation and drive revenue mobilization and collection.”

NBC to support other gov’t targets

Like the Youth Employment Agency, which targets non-tertiary graduates, the NBC has a number of subsets which are connected to other major government targets and initiatives.

On the back of the Sanitation Campaign launch and the anticipated Sanitation Brigade, the Finance Minister noted that, the NBC has made provision for sanitation inspectors under a “Clean Ghana” Programme. These inspectors will focus on enforcing sanitation laws.

Trained nurses and other healthcare workers will provide health care to deprived and rural communities under a “Heal Ghana” module.

The 2018 Budget Statement made known government’s intent to ensure tax compliance, and NBC will be contributing to these aims with its “Revenue Ghana” programme.

Ghana currently has six million taxable citizens, but only 1.2 million are paying tax.

Tertiary Graduates under “Revenue Ghana” programme will “mobilize the youth to collect taxes that have been difficult to mobilize and enforce collection,” Mr. Ofori Atta stated.

There will also be “Teach Ghana” and “Feed Ghana” modules under this special initiative.

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By: Delali Adogla-Bessa/citifmonline.com/Ghana

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