Full text of Information Minister's press briefing

Stranded Ghanaian youth in Dubai

The security agencies are tracking down recruitment agencies and Travel and Tour companies involved in sending young people to the Gulf Region, especially Dubai, under the pretext of engaging them in already secured jobs. Presently, about 500 Ghanaian youth are stranded in Dubai, after they have been left to their fate by recruitment agencies. Government has gathered that recruitment agencies charge between 8,000 cedis and 15,000 cedis to procure travel documents and travel visas for these young people to travel to Dubai. These recruitment agencies solicit the assistance of Travel and Tour operators, who act as sponsors of the visa applications for a fee. Meanwhile, the visas that they secure for them are tourist visas which have only three months validity.

On their arrival in Dubai, a corresponding agent takes charge and requests for an additional 1,000 Dirhams to cover accommodation for one month, while the job seeker is left alone to embark on a job search contrary to the promise of an assured job. Given that the validity of UAE tourist visas expire within three months, most Ghanaians are unable to secure work within the period, hence become illegal residents. Their illegal immigration status obliges them to pay for any extra day spent in excess of their visa term, at 95 dollars for the extra day and 30 dollars per day for any additional day spent in the UAE when they want to leave the country. This is what has ensured that 500 of them have become stranded.

Meanwhile the Consulate-General in Dubai has been in regular contact with the stranded Ghanaians and is working to get them the necessary support to return home. We wish to take the opportunity to remind Ghanaians that the ban on exportation of labour from Ghana to the gulf is still in place. Meanwhile the Ministry of Employment and Labour Relations in collaboration with Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Interior and the Ministry of Gender and Social Protection are working to ensure that bilateral agreements are reached between Ghana and the states in the gulf before the ban is lifted.

Presidential Task Force Meeting on the ECOWAS Single Currency Programme

The President of the Republic of Ghana, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, will tomorrow the 21st February 2018, chair the fifth Presidential Task Force meeting for the ECOWAS Single Currency. In attendance will be the Presidents of Cote D’Ivoire, Niger and Nigeria. As part of measures to ensure a common currency for the ECOWAS zone, ECOWAS adopted a road map in May 2009 with key deadlines that were meant to ensure the operation of a common currency for the ECOWAS Zone by 2020.

Over the years, there has been challenges hindering compliance with the convergence criteria on a sustainable basis, a prerequisite for macroeconomic stability, required for the establishment of the monetary union.

As a result of the challenges faced in the introduction of the West Africa Monetary Zone (WAMZ) common currency by the 2015 deadline, the Extraordinary Summit of the ECOWAS Authority held in Dakar on the 25 October 2013, entrusted the Ghanaian and Nigerian heads of state with the task of supervising the process aimed at introducing the single currency by the scheduled deadline. The ECOWAS Presidential Task Force was therefore set up in January 2014, through a decision of the ECOWAS Authority Heads of Sates with the task of supervising the process aimed at introducing the single currency by the scheduled deadline. The ECOWAS Presidential Task Force was therefore set up in January 2014. Through a decision of the ECOWAS Authority of Heads of Sates and governments, the task force was expanded to include the Heads of State of Nigeria and Cote D’Ivoire in 2016.

The Task Force has had four meetings to date, the last of which was held in October 2017 in Niamey, Niger. In the Niger meeting, a major decision was taken for a few countries which are ready in 2020 to start the monetary union, while other countries can join later. The decisions of the Niger meeting are as follows:

a) Member states to pursue structural reforms to stem the volatility of the prices of raw materials and enable their economies to be more resilient to external shocks b) Member states to take measures, including the attainment of the convergence criteria, necessary for the creation of the ECOWAS single currency by 2020 c) Member states to strengthen multi-lateral surveillance including the use of international monitoring institutions. d) It instructed the Ministerial Committee to meet within three months to propose a new roadmap to accelerate the creation of the single currency by 2020. In this framework, a gradual approach where a few countries which are ready can start the monetary union, while other countries can join later. e) The Presidential Task Force decided to hold their next meeting in Accra, Republic of Ghana in February 2018.

Nurses Picketing at the Ministry of Health

It has come to the notice of government, that since yesterday, nurses who graduated from government training institutions in 2016, have been picketing at the Ministry of Health, demanding that they be engaged to work in health facilities immediately. Government wishes to appeal to them to discontinue the picketing and go home, while the Minister for Health works to get them placement as has been assured. It is important to state that, when we came into office in 2017, there was a backlog of graduates from 2012 to 2015 to be absorbed. As we speak, nearly all those in that category have been absorbed. Since 2017, government has engaged more than 16,000 of those who graduated between 2012 and 2015.

It is also significant to state that, the government of Ghana, has since 2014, stopped the policy of bonding student nurses, which basically means that government is no longer under an obligation to engage them when they finish school. Even so, government has made provision in the 2018 budget for the recruitment of 32,000 health personnel, including 27,000 for various categories of nurses. Meanwhile there are nurses who graduated from private training institutions from 2012 to 2016 who as Ghanaians and children of Ghanaian tax payers, also deserve some consideration and government is currently capturing their data in order to engage them as well. This is being done with the 2016 batch of graduates from government institutions in view. We are therefore appealing to them, while also assuring them, that we are working to get them engaged as soon as our validation processes are complete.